Fresh insights into the forces shaping the future of US retail
TCS Global Retail Outlook Key Findings Report - US
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TCS Global Retail Outlook Key Findings Report - US
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Real-time, AI-driven responsiveness and decision making critical for success in 2026
The US retail sector faces mounting challenges from operational costs, workforce skill shortages, and technology adoption, demanding strategic innovation and efficiency to sustain growth.
This report, derived from the comprehensive TCS Global Retail Outlook key findings report, includes insights from more than 250 US respondents and covers five subsectors. It is designed for senior leaders and decision-makers who want to understand the most essential capabilities and forces that will define success for US retailers in 2026.
This report highlights:
The research recommends making loyalty and first-party data central to strategy, investing in workforce and data capabilities, and aligning AI investments with core business priorities to build resilience and sustain competitive advantage.
These insights can help retail leaders anticipate key factors impacting the US retail industry and chart an effective strategy toward sustainable success in the age of AI-powered retail.
The top priorities for US retailers:
Advanced AI capabilities elude most US retailers.
The biggest obstacles for US retailers:
Other takeaways:
Loyalty programmes remain an untapped source for enterprise decisions.
Most retailers are still at early-stage implementation of AI. They are most mature in adopting generative AI (GenAI) systems that can reason with text, images, and structured data, but less so with AI-powered technology for real-time decision-making.
Retail’s next chapter in the US will be defined by how quickly organisations move from experimenting with AI tools to embedding it as a strategic, enterprise-wide capability to unlocking new levels of decisions, speed, and agility.