The National Retail Federation's annual NRF conference has become a showplace for the latest technology, as well its core retail foundations. Sheryl Kingstone returns to discuss what was on display and how it will impact retail and the larger tech landscape with host Eric Hanselman. While we may be a ways off from having robot dogs retrieving shoes at your local mall store, automation and agentic applications are delivering significant value in customer interactions - $22 billion in the recent 451 Research study. The days of clunky chatbot interfaces seem to be well and truly behind us.

One the greater challenges in scaling agentic applications is maintaining consumer trust as applications and use cases grow. Part of that trust will depend on effectively managing fleets of agents. In order to scale, organizations have to develop an AI agent control plane that can manage memory, maintain context and guide agent actions. Regulatory requirements are in their early stages, but enterprises have to focus on controls that will ensure they can maintain customer trust as matter of basic business operations.

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Credits:

• Host/Author: Eric Hanselman 
• Guest: Sheryl Kingstone
• Producer/Editor: Feranmi Adeoshun
• Published With Assistance From: Sophie Carr, Kyra Smith