It’s been a few weeks since Cisco joined extra than 40,000 retail trade leaders in New York City for NRF: Retail’s Big Show. This occasion is persistently the pulse of the evolving retail panorama and serves as a central hub for what’s subsequent in the trade. The 2025 occasion featured the theme “Game Changer,” and all through the occasion expertise, three recreation–altering takeaways stood out above the remainder:
AI is driving new capabilities in customized engagement
AI was all over the place at NRF, and it was clear that its evolution continues to steer the most important transformation within the trade’s historical past up to now. Across the occasion, we noticed how AI applied sciences are being leveraged to research huge quantities of knowledge round buyer preferences and conduct. If utilized successfully, this permits retailers to supply new value-added experiences for purchasers like customized suggestions and focused provides, in the end resulting in bigger baskets and better satisfaction.
AI was on full show inside Cisco’s sales space as our cell engagement demo highlighted Webex Connect’s potential to redefine the acquisition journey with clever automation. Mobile espresso ordering met attendees within the Cisco sales space, highlighting an expertise starting with AI-driven self-service and ending with a number of the greatest lattes on the present ground.

Smart cameras are a necessary knowledge supply for the shop of the long run
Historically, digicam utilization in retail has centered on defending each bodily and digital belongings, making certain the security of workers and prospects, and stopping theft and fraud. However, past a safety use case, digicam knowledge will help retailers acquire new and important insights into their retailer environments and their prospects. Camera knowledge can be utilized to optimize retailer layouts, enhance product placements, and improve total buyer movement, in addition to monitor buyer conduct to realize insights into tendencies and preferences.
Cisco showcased this necessary alternative for retailers within the sales space with the complete lineup of cloud-managed sensible Meraki cameras with ecosystem accomplice, EVERYANGLE. When paired collectively, the info generated by way of Cisco Meraki cameras is leveraged via the ability of EVERYANGLE’s superior AI analytics to disclose hidden patterns and worthwhile alternatives for retailers, similar to demographics and sentiment of shoppers, in addition to conventional metrics round footfall and dwell time, indicating buyer curiosity in retailer areas and merchandise.

Retail innovation calls for digital resilience
The retail trade has skilled important quantities of innovation post-pandemic. However, digital transformation poses advanced challenges and a large alternative for a lot of retailers — and it’s not simply in regards to the adoption of latest expertise.
Retailers are actually held to increased requirements every single day on the subject of buyer experiences. Customers count on every touchpoint with a retailer to be seamless and constant throughout each digital and bodily interactions. One out of inventory merchandise or one poor software expertise will be the distinction between a loyal buyer and a misplaced sale. By gathering, combining, and analyzing huge new knowledge units from point-of-sale (POS) programs, affiliate gadgets, cell functions, retailer services, visitor Wi-Fi networks, and IoT, retailers can decrease downtime at shops, enhance software reliability, and even pinpoint fraudulent actions. We highlighted these new capabilities, just lately added to the Cisco portfolio by Splunk.
Splunk IT Service Intelligence supplies the mechanism for such visibility throughout bodily and on-line shops with real-time key efficiency indicators and service-level monitoring to boost retailer’s digital resilience and permit them to ship the experiences prospects count on.

Cisco for retail: Connecting and defending retail organizations within the AI period
At NRF, Cisco was thrilled to showcase end-to-end retail options and exhibit how we’re equipping companies to tackle new challenges. Cisco not solely understands the consistently evolving retail panorama, however our options are making it attainable. We will help you modernize your community infrastructure and embed your bodily and digital environments with the intelligence, analytics, and automation wanted to drive your key enterprise outcomes. Check out some helpful sources beneath to see how Cisco is Connecting and defending retail organizations within the AI period.
Cisco Portfolio Explorer for Retail
Cisco ThousandEyes for Retail
Splunk and the Cisco Store exhibit the ability of digital resilience at NRF 2025
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