Grocery giant Morrisons creates Chief AI Officer role: last week's most read retail technology articles
Check out our most clicked retail technology articles from last week, including Constructor, Walmart, OpenAI, commercetools, The Very Group, Made With Intent, Asda, Rokt, Lipstick London, and the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Constructor claims a first as it launches Agentic Checkout solution powered by Stripe
Constructor, which powers search and product discovery for retailers including Sephora, The Very Group, Monica Vinader, White Stuff, and Furniture Village, has launched Agentic Checkout, a move that, the company claims, makes it the first to offer Stripe powered checkout directly within an onsite shopping agent.
People on retail sites and apps can discover products, ask questions, get personalised recommendations, and refine their choices, then check out and pay, without leaving the agent experience. They can pay via the Link By Stripe digital wallet or other payment methods.
Agentic Checkout is available within Constructor’s AI Shopping Agent (ASA), which lets shoppers describe what they need in natural language and get guidance based on their context, history and intent, and AI Product Insights Agent (PIA), which answers product specific questions directly on product detail pages. Agentic Checkout will expand to more touchpoints throughout retailers’ digital properties later this year.
“The promise of agentic commerce is that a shopper can express what they need and AI can help them every step of the way, making every part of the journey easier, more helpful, and more enjoyable,” says Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and Co-founder at Constructor.
“Delivering on that promise requires best-in-class discovery and then best-in-class checkout. Constructor has spent years focused on improving the discovery experience and helping shoppers find the right products, while Stripe has built world class payments infrastructure that helps shoppers buy those products easily and securely. Together, we’re making agentic shopping more complete for consumers and more valuable for retailers.”
John Lewis, Asda, Morrisons, H&M, Dunelm, and Waitrose among 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards finalists
We're hugely pleased to present the finalists and shortlists for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by 3D Cloud, Business France, and Retail Technology Show 2027. We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector
Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! It’s now over to our star studded judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.
Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.
Digital and AI specialist commercetools announces appointment of Katy Hiller as CMO
commercetools has announced the appointment of Katy Hiller as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). She joins from Unily, where as CMO she led the global function. Previously, Hiller spent seven years at software supply chain company Sonatype, progressing through its marketing leadership to become CMO.
At commercetools, Hiller will lead the company's global marketing strategy, with responsibility for brand, communications, product and field marketing, and demand generation.
“Commerce is entering a period of fundamental change as AI reshapes how consumers shop and how businesses operate,” says Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “Katy understands how to turn major shifts in technology into clear market positioning and sustainable growth. She has a proven track record of building high performing global teams and connecting marketing directly to commercial results. That combination will be critical as we take commercetools into its next phase of growth.”
“commercetools has spent more than a decade challenging how enterprise commerce is built, and AI is creating another defining moment for the industry,” says Hiller. “What attracted me to the company is the combination of a strong technology foundation, ambitious customers and a clear point of view on where commerce is going next. My focus will be on turning that into an even stronger global brand and growth engine, and ensuring commercetools leads in this next era of commerce.”
Walmart joins OpenAI's ChatGPT fashion push as Virtual Try On and Favourites launch
A dress spotted on social media, an outfit for an autumn wedding or a new style to try: OpenAI is adding tools to ChatGPT that let shoppers move from an idea to an image of themselves wearing it, with Walmart among the retailers involved from launch.
The new Virtual Try On and Favourites features allow users to visualise clothing and accessories using their own photographs, then save products to return to later. Shoppers can describe what they want, upload an image of an item or use a screenshot as the starting point for a search.
Walmart is bringing its fashion range into the experience. Daniel Danker, EVP AI Acceleration, Product, and Design, said on LinkedIn that the US retail giant was working with OpenAI “from day one” to make its fashion available through Virtual Try On, Shop this Look and Favourites.
The Very Group teams with AI powered e-commerce personalisation platform Made With Intent
The Very Group, which operates digital retailers Very and Littlewoods, has partnered with Made With Intent. By using over 800 behavioural signals, Made With Intent’s agentic decision engine predicts customer’s intent in real-time, helping to decide what they see and when.
Very says it will now be able to spotlight discount offers unique to customers based on individual shopping trends, as well as provide prompts at crucial moments throughout the shopping experience. Made With Intent’s engine is built on a proprietary model and optimisation AI agent that work together to allocate experiences across hundreds of intent combinations, learning what works for which visitors and contexts then applying it to future sessions.
Sarah Hanna, Digital Director at The Very Group, comments: “Made With Intent’s agentic platform unlocks fast paced, scalable real-time personalisation that can be executed to help enhance the customer experience, ultimately influencing our commercial KPIs. In fact, in the first month of the partnership, we’ve already seen promising results including revenue per customer increasing by a fifth in one of our agentic strategies, and an uplift in overall conversion.”
“Made With Intent gives our e-commerce team a brand new lever that they can effortlessly activate to make a difference on what our customers see and when, whether that’s one-off discounts or personalised payment options. It’s all about giving customers the right experience at the right time.”
Morrisons talks embracing opportunities in data and AI as Mohsen Ghasempour joins grocery retailer
Rami Baitiéh, CEO at Morrisons, has taken to social media to discuss the appointment of Mohsen Ghasempour as Chief AI Officer, a newly created role that will see him establish a central data science and AI function for the UK grocery retailer. He joins from Kingfisher, where he had served as Chief AI Officer since March 2024 following more than two years as Group AI Director.
In a LinkedIn post, Baitiéh said: “To keep delivering exceptional value and service, we have to constantly innovate. That's why I am so excited to welcome Mohsen Ghasempour to Morrisons in the newly created role of Chief AI Officer. The creation of this new department reflects our commitment to ensuring we embrace the opportunities in data and AI at pace, with focus, and in the right way.”
He added: “Mohsen is a recognised expert in the field with hands on experience of unlocking the potential of technology to deliver innovative new solutions. Under his leadership, we will put that technology to work where it matters most: driving customer growth, pushing the boundaries of our manufacturing, operational, and commercial excellence, and genuinely empowering our colleagues to deliver measurable business impact.”
He concluded: “Mohsen brings a phenomenal track record, joining us from Kingfisher where he built and scaled their AI operations across Europe under the leadership of my friend, Thierry Garnier. I'm delighted to welcome him to Morrisons, and I'm so glad he could join us on our Leadership Meeting day. Mohsen, a warm welcome to the team!”
Asda and Rokt team up to bring AI powered relevant offers to customers at checkout
Asda has partnered with Rokt to deliver relevant offers to the UK grocery retailer’s customers at checkout across its online grocery business and George, its clothing and home brand. Using Rokt Pay+ on the payment page and Rokt Thanks on the order confirmation page, Asda says it has created a new retail media revenue stream at the point of purchase, while customer conversion remains unchanged.
Rokt uses AI to determine the most relevant next action for each customer in real-time on both the payments and confirmation pages.
“Checkout is a critical part of the customer journey, so we were deliberate about how we approached it,” says Chris Chalmers, Vice President Customer Data and Loyalty at Asda “The results show we can make that experience more relevant for customers while creating meaningful new value for the business.”
Dragons' Den star Touker Suleyman's new beauty brand Lipstick London gets physical at Westfield
Lipstick London, a new beauty brand from Touker Suleyman, Owner and Chairman at Hawes & Curtis and Ghost, has launched a kiosk at Westfield London, White City.
In a LinkedIn post including a photo of himself at the shopping centre, the fashion retail entrepreneur and TV personality, best known for his stint on reality show Dragons’ Den, said: "Here we are this morning (Saturday, 3rd) launching my new brand Lipstick London at Westfield I want to thank everyone queuing up for this new movement. 15 months of hard work has gone into this. Let’s go."
