117 (see paragraph styles) Historically, merchandising models were based on weekly or monthly decision cycles and anchored to static reporting rhythms; agentic AI breaks that cadence. Decisions can now be triggered dynamically by factors such as a predicted weather change, a sudden surge in social media interest for a product or a competitor move, allowing merchandisers to act in real time. “The most valuable skill is no longer synthesising data manually; it’s knowing what questions to ask, setting the right guardrails for agents and applying the commercial and cultural intuition that AI simply cannot replicate,” says McMahon. “This new merchant profile has been described as ‘strategic orchestrator’ by McKinsey. It is someone who directs AI agents, guides assortment strategy across channels and spends their freed-up time on supplier relationships, customer insight and brand-building. “That said, we should be clear-eyed: the shift is happening, but the pace varies enormously across the industry. A retailer with clean, unified data and strong AI governance can start capturing value now, while a retailer with fragmented legacy systems and siloed RETAIL & CONSUMER GOODS Photo: iStock/monkeybusinessimages
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