Tech: Robotics

  1. Technology & Innovation

What if AI Could Tell Your Crops Exactly Which Nutrients They Need – Before They Ask?

Picture this: A farmer walks through rows of soybeans, smartphone in hand, as computer vision instantly identifies nutrient deficiencies invisible to the human eye. Meanwhile, AI algorithms analyze satellite imagery to create precise application maps, and robotic sprayers deliver nano-chelated micronutrients with surgical precision. This isn’t science fiction — it’s happening right now in fields […]
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Marc Lore’s startup Wonder preps blockbuster 2026 IPO: last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles

Check out our most clicked articles from last week, including Boot Barn, Aptos, Amazon Just Walk Out technology, Morrisons, Vusion, JD Sports Fashion, Kevel, Dollar General, The Trade Desk, and the first ever RTIH Retail Technology Hot 100 List.  Have your say and vote today! First ever RTIH Retail Technology Hot 100 List goes live, […]
6 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Q1 Numbers Are In. How Do You Stack Up?

Q1 is behind you. The question is — did your store keep pace with the rest of the industry? This week we’re dropping the Q1 2026 Benchmark Report. Furniture and mattress, side by side — traffic, revenue, conversion, average ticket, be-backs, and more. We also pulled some context from NRF’s freshly released Top 50 Global […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Your Bottom Store Is a Signal

Everyone knows the phrase—you’re only as good as your weakest link. This week’s blog questions that idea and what it really means in retail. Because the store at the bottom of the report, the salesperson having a tough month, the category that isn’t moving—those aren’t always the problem. Sometimes, they’re the clearest signal you have. […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Shining stars: the latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List goes live at RTS 2026

The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List is here, sponsored by 3D Cloud and launching on the first day of RTS 2026 in London. The list has seen a surge in popularity over the past few years, to the point that we’ve decided publishing it once a year is no […]
2 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Gamified Dining Wins: How Kura Sushi Turns Play into Profits with Participatory Food Marketing

  The restaurant industry is moving beyond transactions and into interactive, participatory food experiences, and Kura Sushi USA is demonstrating how that shift can drive measurable financial performance. This is not simply about sushi. It is about behavioral economics, menu engineering, and consumer engagement strategies that increase frequency, check average, and throughput simultaneously.   The […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital

Andy Jassy On Grocery, Squiggly Lines, Betting Big, & Music Lessons

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has posted his annual letter to shareholders, following in a tradition begun by founder and then-CEO Jeff Bezos in 1997.  (As usual, Amazon also posts the original 1997 message after the new missive, which is one way to indicate that as much as the business has evolved and grown, its core […]
7 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Just Eat and Starship Technologies tie up brings food delivery robots to streets of Barnsley

Starship Technologies has partnered with Just Eat to roll-out a pilot scheme involving self-driving delivery robots in North East Barnsley. The launch will initially see a small number of the orange, talking robots serving thousands of residents, delivering food from restaurants to customers’ doors within minutes. The service starts today in Carlton, Athersley, Monk Bretton […]
2 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Guest Column:  Thom Blischok on “Retail Restructured”

Content Guy’s Note:  I don’t run a lot of guest columns on MNB, but when I read this LinkedIn posting from Thom Blischok, of The Dialogic Group, I decided that it was exactly the kind of piece that should be featured here – it focuses on how three major retailers are engaging in fundamental rethinking […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Same Traffic. Different Outcome. Why? 

There’s a lot happening in retail right now—but most of it isn’t showing up where people are looking. The headlines say spending is up. Traffic looks steady. On paper, things seem fine. But underneath, behavior is shifting. What customers do, when they buy, and why they convert is changing in ways most retailers can’t see. […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Trakwell’s Most Accurate Model Is Here

Most of the retailers being called “innovative” right now aren’t doing something flashy—they’re just seeing more of what’s actually happening inside their business. That’s really what this week’s blog is about too: the difference between what you think is happening and what you can actually see. Because the biggest opportunities aren’t in the customers who […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

KC/In Conversation:  The Intersection of Business & Technology

From Western Michigan University’s annual Food Marketing Conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan … a wide-ranging panel discussion that I had the chance to facilitate last week about the impact of technology on various segments of the business.  The focus includes robotics, AI, Agentic commerce, and how a business needs to re-engineer its corporate DNA if it […]
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  1. Data & Insights

What’s Really Happening in Your Store

Everyone wants a crystal ball right now. The headlines say spending is up. Traffic looks steady. On paper, retail seems fine. But what’s actually driving performance is harder to see—and that’s where the best operators are separating themselves. This week’s blog is about that idea: not predicting the future, but seeing what’s already happening more […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

AI becomes central to M&S technology transformation: these are the biggest retail stories from March

March is done and dusted, April is up and running, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful month for the retail technology space. Here’s your briefing on the most important stories from March, including VenHub Global, RTS 2026, Zalando, Nomagic, Co-op, VoCoVo, StrongPoint, Iceland Foods, AiFi, Boxbar Tech, Groupe Dynamite, and Manhattan Associates. […]
7 min read
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  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital

Inside Amazon’s Plans For “A New Kind Of Supercenter”

Business Insider reports that “Amazon is moving deeper into Walmart’s territory with a new kind of supercenter. Internal documents show how that strategy is taking shape. “The e-commerce giant is planning to build a number of large-format stores that combine a Walmart-style supercenter with a robotics-powered warehouse, including previously unreported locations, according to internal documents […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

The Innovation Conversation:  From Vegas To Kalamazoo, A Focus On Tech

Today, Tom Furphy and KC report from two different tech-centric conferences – Tomorrow from Shoptalk 2026 in Las Vegas, and KC from Western Michigan University’s Food Marketing Conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  In the first of a two-part Innovation Conversation, they focus on the degree to which business leaders in the future will have to think […]
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  1. Trends & External Forces

Your Views:  As Time Goes By

On the subject of dynamic pricing as reflected in electronic shelf labels – which some states want to ban – MNB reader Donald C. Taylor wrote: Probably a poor comparison and sure, the industries are different, but aren’t our local gas stations doing this exact same thing?  Prices change, prices are digitally displayed roadside, the […]
8 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Are You Counting Visitors or Buyers?

Foot traffic dropped for the first time since COVID last year. Most retailers still don’t know why. This week’s blog, The Thing You’re Avoiding, is about the thing on your list you keep skipping — and what it’s actually costing you to avoid it. In this newsletter, we’re looking at why foot traffic alone is no longer […]
4 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Andrew Ross Sorkin on the Risk if AI Succeeds, Private Credit, Prediction Markets, and the SpaceX IPO

When Andrew Ross Sorkin released his book on the 1929 stock market crash last year, the prevailing worry was that the debt-reliant AI buildout might end in disaster. Now, six months later, the market is freaking out about AI’s potential to succeed. Every Anthropic blog post seems to cause a mini-meltdown in software stocks and […]
14 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

SXSW AI Preview, Oracle’s Cuts Foreshadow Others?, AI Consciousness Debate

SXSW 2026 kicks off on Thursday and AI news should be pouring out of Austin. This year’s “Tech & AI” track features about two dozen sessions, making up about a third of the festival’s total featured talks. AI-related sessions will feature a mix of researchers, media executives, and technologists including Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström, Cloudflare […]
6 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Restaurant Customer Disequilibrium: Why 2026 Is the Year Complacency Finally Breaks the Chains

  The restaurant industry didn’t just take its eye off the ball—it left the ball in the parking lot, went inside, and ordered the same combo meal it’s been eating for 25 years. Operators mastered brand protectionism, but somewhere along the way, many forgot the equally important skill of brand evolution. And now? The bill […]
4 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

VenHub bags deals for six new autonomous Smart Stores across Las Vegas metro area

VenHub Global reports that it has agreements with multiple independent operators for the deployment of six new Smart Store locations across the Las Vegas metropolitan area. These will be installed throughout the year. The stores operate 24 hours a day without on-site staff and combine robotics, AI driven inventory management, and mobile first checkout. The […]
2 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Global Industrial Robotics Lubricants Market Size, Growth & Forecast to 2030

Industrial robots are no longer limited to high-tech factories; they have become the backbone of modern manufacturing worldwide. From automotive assembly lines and electronics fabrication to food processing and pharmaceutical production, industrial robots are driving higher productivity, precision, and operational efficiency. Yet behind every seamless robotic movement lies a critical but often overlooked enabler: industrial […]
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  1. Channel: Mass

Walmart to add automation, robotics to Louisiana distribution center

​[[{“value”:” Dive Brief The retailer’s $330 million investment, slated to start this year, is part of a larger effort to upgrade all 42 of its regional distribution facilities. Published Feb. 9, 2026 A Walmart distribution center packaging conveyor in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. In Louisiana, more than 1,900 Walmart employees work at distribution centers. Courtesy of […]
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  1. Technology & Innovation

FaceTime with the Content Guy:  Zoox-topia

I was in Las Vegas for the National Grocers Association (NGA) show, and so I took advantage of the proximity to take a ride in a Zoox – the Amazon-backed robotic taxi service being tested there.  Naturally, I decided to take you along for the ride. (Note:  There are some projections that this year will […]
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on AI’s Next Breakthroughs, What Counts As AGI, And Google’s AI Glasses Bet

AI is evolving fast, but AI researchers still have substantive work ahead of them. Figuring out how to get AI to learn continuously, for instance, is a problem that “has not been cracked yet,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told me last week. Tackling that problem, along with building better memory and finding more efficient […]
10 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

OpenAI’s Latest Mega-Fundraise, Big Tech Earnings Week, Amazon Layoffs?

Sam Altman is fundraising again and the next round could be historic. The OpenAI CEO is reportedly in early talks with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds about raising $50 billion, a round that could give his company a valuation between $750 billion and $850 billion and eclipse its own record-setting $40 billion SoftBank investment fulfilled […]
5 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Walmart ramps up focus on AI and drones: this week’s biggest retail technology stories

It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail tech space. Here’s your briefing on the most important stories from the past few days, including Pacsun, Papa Johns, Google Cloud, JD Sports Fashion, commercetools, Zalando, Amazon, osapiens, and Otto Group. 1. Walmart and […]
7 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

From the NRF Show Floor – My Top 10 Retail Tech Companies to Watch in 2026

NRF left me energized about where retail is headed. As I met with industry leaders and partners, what stood out wasn’t just innovation for innovation’s sake. It was how practical, intentional, and retail-ready so much of the technology has become. From autonomy and AI to payments and infrastructure, this feels like the beginning of the […]
5 min read
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Editor’s Choice

  1. Trends & External Forces
  2. Shopper & Customer
  3. Technology & Innovation
  4. Trends & External Forces
  5. Associates & Employees
  6. Merchandising
  7. Stores & Formats

Walmart to Expand Digital Shelf Labels Chainwide

Walmart will deploy digital shelf labels (DSLs) chainwide this year, doubling the approximately 2,300 U.S. locations currently using the technology (Walmart U.S. operates more than 4,600 stores). With more than 120,000 items in a typical Walmart store, managing price changes manually requires significant associate hours. Additionally, these DSLs are equipped with LED lights that make […]
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