Sean Reardon joins Simbe following leadership roles at AiFi, Gideon, and SoftBank Robotics America
Shelf digitisation and store intelligence specialist, Simbe, has announced a new addition to its leadership team, with Sean Reardon joining as Vice President of Field Operations. He brings experience from leadership roles at AiFi, Gideon, and SoftBank Robotics America, where he built and led organisations responsible for deploying autonomous technologies.
At Simbe, he will oversee global field operations, implementation strategy, and deployment excellence.
"Shelf digitisation has reached an inflection point," says Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-Founder at Simbe. "The industry's interest in digitising stores is accelerating as retailers deploy it across hundreds or thousands of locations. Sean's operational leadership strengthens our ability to deliver enterprise excellence while continuing to define the future of intelligent retail operations."
Tesco
Tesco is trialling Simbe’s Tally in-store shelf scanning robot. This is taking place at a single store, with plans to extend the pilot to a small number of other locations.
Thanks to Toby Pickard, Retail Futures Senior Partner at IGD, and a member of the judging panel for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards, who first brought this to RTIH’s attention.
“What's particularly interesting is that this isn't an isolated innovation. Over the last few weeks, Tesco has also: Introduced autonomous cleaning robots across convenience and supermarket stores; Announced a partnership with Hanshow to deploy electronic shelf edge labels in around 3,000 large format and convenience stores; It is also trialling an AI assistant across its workforce to help customers with meal planning and building shopping baskets,” he says.
He adds: “Taken together, these announcements paint a much bigger picture. It feels like Tesco is building towards the hyper-connected store, where robotics, AI, computer vision, digital shelf infrastructure and connected operations work together to create smarter store execution, empower store colleagues, and ultimately deliver a better shopping experience.”
“Retail technology conversations often focus on individual innovations. The real transformation happens when these technologies begin to work as an integrated ecosystem. Tesco's recent moves suggest that's exactly the direction it's heading. The question now is: Which UK retailer will be next to accelerate its journey towards the hyper-connected store?”
Physical stores will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
