AI makes move from pilots to transform grocery retail operations and consumer experiences in APAC
AI is rapidly penetrating the grocery retail space, moving from analytics and pilots into workflows and day-to-day execution. The trend is strong across Asia-Pacific (APAC), due to dense urban stores, high labour churn, and competitive quick commerce ecosystems.
A 2025 Q4 survey corroborates this, in which 45% of consumers in Asia and Australasia responded that they were very or quite likely to purchase a product based on recommendations or endorsements by AI, according to GlobalData.
Jaya Dandey, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Whether shoppers realise it or not, machine learning systems have long been deciding when to encourage consumers to make purchases, which products they can see, and what discounts they can avail. Now, agentic systems can also complete shopping-related tasks end-to-end.”
Lawson was the first Japanese convenience store retailer to introduce AI enabled “Lawson Go” stores in 2022. The brand collaborated with CloudPick in 2025 to integrate the latest AI, machine learning, and computer vision to enhance customer experience by eliminating check-out lines and the need for cashiers. In 2024, South Korean retail AI company Fainders.AI introduced a compact and cashier-less MicroStore in a gym, enhancing the accessibility of autonomous retail across various businesses.
AI is especially useful in forecasting and automation of replenishment, particularly in APAC, where store footprints can be small and replenishment frequency is high. The Japanese food retail chain Coop Sapporo uses Soracom’s camera-based AI system (Sora-cam) to avoid overstocking and reduce unsold merchandise on store shelves.
It employs an analytics team to analyse the images generated to determine and arrive at the best shelf display ratio. The system also alerts staff to apply discount labels on close-to-expiry food items to prevent wastage.
Alongside monitoring waste and markdown timing, AI models can improve the efficiency of promotions. In Southeast Asian (SEA) markets with high price sensitivity, even small improvements in promotion efficiency can significantly improve profit margins. AI driven labour optimisation measures, such as scheduling, task priority lists, and workload balancing, are useful in Japan/South Korea where labour shortages are structural, as well as in high growth SEA markets, where efficiency is key.
Dandey adds: “While the above technologies enhance operations, agentic AI can enhance the consumer experience. In food retail, agentic AI is best understood as an AI “operator” that can understand a goal, plan steps, stay within budget or allergen constraints, execute actions across systems, ask clarifying questions, and learn preferences over time.”
Instead of searching item by item, customers can express overall intent, for instance, by narrowing it down to “Plan five dinners for a family of four, mostly Asian recipes, no shellfish, under 45 minutes”. The agent generates recipes, builds a shopping cart, sizes quantities, and adds staples to the cart if missing. This is crucial for the region, as most APAC households cook frequently and shop fresh. Recipe- and cuisine aware AI agents fit local habits (Korean banchan, Japanese bentos, Indian spice bases) better than generic Western meal plans.
Dandey concludes: “In many APAC markets, shopping is already deeply integrated with digital wallets, messaging apps, ride hailing, and delivery ecosystems, making it easier for agentic AI to plug into daily routines. Nevertheless, some key challenges need to be overcome; ensuring private data sharing consent, minimising hallucinations in terms of allergens and ingredients, and implementing proper localization of the system with language nuance.”
RTIH AI in Retail Awards
Brarista, IBM Consulting, Foundit!, Quorso, Vusion, Sensei, Reckon.ai, EE, Walkbase, Globant, Riskified, and Goddiva were among the winners at the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, sponsored by VenHub Global, 3D Cloud, EdTech Innovation Hub, and Retail Technology Show.
Our 2026 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The Barbican in Central London on Thursday, 29th January, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Lucy Porter.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “According to Amazon’s Andy Jassy: AI is a once in a lifetime reinvention of everything we know, and the largest technology transformation since the cloud.”
“Whether that’s overstating it or not, we're certainly seeing an increasing number of innovative, potentially game changing developments in this space across both traditional and digital retail spaces. And that is reflected in tonight's finalists, who are boosting customer experiences and tackling retailers' painpoints across the likes of physical stores, online, omnichannel, supply chain, and payments.”
“To quote one of our judges: I have to admit, judging these awards was so difficult. So many that would have been worthy winners. And great to see how AI has moved firmly into delivery mode. Firmly into delivering for customers and driving huge innovation.”
Congratulations to our 2026 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended our Thursday, 29th January gathering.
Stay tuned for an indepth review of the awards ceremony in the next edition of RTIH magazine.
Continue reading…