Where are you seeing the most exciting cross-pollination of AI strategies between retail and manufacturing today?
Stuart Hubbard: Fundamentally, organisations including retail and manufacturing share similar challenges and goals. They are aiming for more connected frontlines where workforce, customers and data are linked and updated in real-time. Manufacturing plants and retail stores both need high levels of visibility into their assets and inventory – to better manage demand and supply chains, and eliminate waste and loss.
IT and OT leaders are focusing on moving from traditional, rules-based automation to automation that can self- improve, deliver more insight and requires less human intervention – the AI moves from being initiated by the frontline worker to the AI being a thoughtful partner who anticipates the frontline workers’ needs using data from across the whole environment and supply chain. From these shared challenges and goals, we begin to see how learnings around AI can be shared across different industries.
Mark Thomson: This cross-pollination is the value we bring to retail, manufacturing, healthcare and logistics customers in areas like workforce
162 July 2026