Retailers Accelerating AI Faster Than Their Ability to Act on Customer Signals

Melbourne — June 8, 2026 — Arktic Fox and Six Degrees Executive, in partnership with Amperity, today released the Inside Digital & eCommerce 2026 report, revealing that while Australian retailers and consumer brands are rapidly increasing investment in AI, personalisation, omnichannel experiences and retail media, many still lack the real-time customer context and operational agility needed to deliver those experiences consistently across channels and moments.

The report, based on insights from more than 100 Australian marketing, digital, eCommerce and retail media leaders, highlights a growing gap between strategic ambition and execution readiness as organisations work to turn fragmented customer signals into more connected, real-time customer experiences.

Despite 89.1% of retailers identifying personalisation as strategically important, only 10% believe they have mature capability to deliver it. At the same time, only 12% of retailers report being fully confident their customer and product data foundations are ready to support AI-driven use cases.

“Retailers and brands understand where the market is heading, particularly as AI reshapes how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products,” said Teresa Sperti, Director of Arktic Fox. “However, many organisations are still operating across fragmented customer data, disconnected systems and siloed teams, making it difficult to turn customer signals into connected, real-time engagement.”

The report found that while retailers are accelerating investment in AI-driven commerce and customer engagement, operational capability continues to lag behind ambition.

More than 80% of retail leaders say their identity resolution and single customer view capabilities are still developing, while 73.3% describe their martech and data ecosystems as only partially integrated. One in five retailers report operating in a highly fragmented data and martech environment.

The operational gaps are particularly visible across omnichannel experience delivery.

The findings also reveal significant execution challenges across omnichannel and customer experience delivery:

• 83.7% of retail leaders say their ability to enable customers to move seamlessly across channels without friction or repetition is still developing

• 77.1% say their organisation’s ability to deliver integrated fulfilment and returns experiences across channels remains immature

• While 82.2% of consumer brands identify omnichannel experience delivery as a strategic priority, nearly half say execution still varies by team or channel, highlighting the challenge of turning omnichannel ambition into consistent customer experiences.

At the same time, investment in AI and agentic commerce is accelerating rapidly across the sector. Retailers identified AI-powered product content creation and optimisation, onsite search and discoverability, and AI-driven personalisation as leading investment priorities over the next 12 to 18 months.

As organisations look to operationalise these investments, attention is increasingly shifting to the customer data, measurement and attribution capabilities needed to support them. The findings reinforce growing focus on closed-loop measurement and privacy-safe data collaboration models that help retailers and brands connect media investment to real customer outcomes.

Among brand manufacturers surveyed:

• 96% believe AI and agentic commerce will significantly or moderately impact how consumers buy

• Half are adapting search and discoverability strategies for AI-driven environments

• 52.9% plan to increase retail media investment in the year ahead, yet only 4.9% report high trust in retail media networks

• 73.2% cite difficulty measuring retail media return on investment and business impact, highlighting growing pressure on retailers and brands to improve transparency, attribution and real-time measurement across retail media ecosystems

“Retail media is one of the clearest examples of how fragmented customer data and disconnected measurement create friction between retailers and brands,” said Billy Loizou, Area Vice President, Asia Pacific at Amperity.

“Brands are under growing pressure to prove business impact, but many still struggle to connect digital engagement, in-store behaviour and customer outcomes in a consistent and privacy-safe way. The organisations building trusted, real-time customer context are far better positioned to improve measurement transparency, strengthen retail media performance and deliver more relevant customer experiences.”

Additional findings from the report include:

• 57.8% of retailers plan to invest in Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), making it the top martech investment priority

• 78.6% of retail leaders believe their loyalty programs need to evolve to meet changing customer expectations

• 62.5% of retailers now manage three or more eCommerce channels as digital commerce ecosystems become increasingly fragmented

• 47.2% of consumer brands now leverage four or more retail media networks as competition intensifies across the sector

The Inside Digital & eCommerce 2026 report is available now at Arktic Fox.