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While AI adoption is widespread, the impact varies across industries. Retailers, in particular, are leading the way, both as the next major adopters of AI and as the ones already seeing tangible ROI from their investments.
Retail operates in a world of clear, performance-driven metrics—for example, sales conversion rates, customer lifetime value (CLV), and customer acquisition cost (CAC)—making AI’s business impact more compelling and often easier to track. And this ability to connect AI investment to bottom-line results is giving retailers a measurable advantage.
Still, our State of AI in Marketing research finds that there are opportunities in retail marketing to maximize AI ROI even further. While the industry leads compared to others when it comes to measuring AI’s business value, a notable portion of retailers still lag in this area. Gaps exist between how leaders view the AI opportunity and how employees embrace it in practice. For example:
- While 54% of retail companies can measure the ROI of their AI investments, a significant 46% are still unable to quantify the financial impact.
- Only 27% of retail marketers have a formalized AI program in place, indicating a lack of structured implementation despite leadership's enthusiasm.
Let’s dive deeper into AI in marketing in the retail sector, where it’s making the most impact, and how it will continue to shape its direction in the future.
Want the full insights on the state of marketing AI in 2025? Read our State of AI in Marketing report.
Retail Marketers Set to Ramp Up AI Adoption in the Next 6 Months
61% of retail marketers have adopted AI, with 27% implementing formalized programs and 34% using AI on an ad-hoc basis.
Compared to other industries, retail marketers are poised to be the next major adopters, with 31% of those not yet using AI planning to adopt it within the next six months. This adoption rate is higher than that of other industries, including financial services, technology, professional services, and life sciences. AI's ability to enhance personalization, forecasting, and dynamic customer engagement likely drives this trend, offering retailers a distinct competitive advantage.
While it’s encouraging to see, adopting AI is just the beginning. Without structured programs and defined goals, efforts often fall short of delivering measurable impact. Retailers planning to implement AI in the next six months should prioritize integrating domain-specific tools that align with their core business needs and establish clear guidelines to drive consistent, scalable outcomes.
ROI and Improved Team Productivity are Top 2 Benefits of AI
When ranking top benefits seen from AI, retail marketers cited drive marketing ROI (31%) and boosted team productivity (25%).
81% of retail marketing adopters report increased job satisfaction with AI. By leveraging AI tools, retail marketers—who must constantly adapt to new products and evolving consumer behaviors—gain more time to move faster, make strategic decisions, and stay agile in an ever-changing market.
While increased marketing ROI and team productivity are recognized benefits, retail marketers and product managers should also focus on AI's potential to boost operational efficiency and reduce costs, which currently rank lower in perceived benefits. By strategically implementing AI to automate certain tasks like inventory management or demand forecasting, retailers can free up resources for innovation and strategic initiatives, ultimately enhancing profitability.
Retail Companies Lead on Measuring AI ROI, But Lag in Maturity
54% of retail companies can measure the ROI of their AI investments—the highest of any industry in the report—while another 24% plan to start in 2025, reflecting the industry's strong focus on clear, measurable outcomes.
Domain-specific tools are critical to this end. Organizations across industries that use them are 37% more likely to measure ROI, and those that measure ROI are in turn 47% more likely to scale AI effectively—a ripple effect that shows how critical it is for marketers to not just adopt AI but choose tools that are fully aligned with industry- and function-specific needs.
But there is still room for improvement—only 27% of all retail marketers have a formalized program and 50% of retail marketers are in self-reported “beginning” or “ramping” maturity stage.
To accelerate progress from AI experimentation to strategic implementation, retail marketers can focus on establishing a cross-functional AI task force to develop clear use cases, governance policies, and training programs.
Data Privacy Limits Scaling AI for Retail Marketing
For retail marketers, the biggest challenge in scaling AI is data privacy (32%), significantly outweighing the next two hurdles—output quality (15%) and limited leadership support (14%).
Heightened concern over data privacy likely stems from the retail industry's reliance on vast amounts of sensitive customer data, including personal information, purchase history, and financial details, making them particularly vulnerable to breaches and regulatory scrutiny.
When evaluating AI solutions, retail marketers should prioritize platforms that offer robust security measures and compliance certifications to protect customer data and maintain trust. Look for AI providers that demonstrate security by design.
AI is underutilized for high-value retail use cases
Despite the clear momentum behind AI across the retail sector, our report found that only most retail marketers are using AI in marketing for research and analysis, with idea generation and content creation following close by at 49%.
Less than a third of retail marketers use AI for brand governance, hyper personalization, workflow automation, or predictive optimization—key agentic capabilities that allow AI to take on more autonomous, decision-making roles in such a fast-evolving industry like retail.
Looking Ahead
Retailers have established themselves as leaders in AI adoption and ROI measurement, but the next phase of AI growth will require closing key gaps in governance, training, and meaningful workflow integration. Despite strong AI commitment from retail leadership—75% report support—gaps in governance, training, and strategy are slowing progress.
While AI is already delivering efficiency gains, job satisfaction, and revenue growth in retail, structured implementation will be critical to maximizing its long-term impact. Only 42% of retailers have an AI council in place, one of the lowest adoption rates across industries, hindering consistent AI use. Additionally, 38% of retailers offer minimal or no AI training and 58% lack clear AI usage guidelines, leaving employees uncertain about how to incorporate AI into their work.
Retailers that invest in the right marketing AI tools, formal AI programs, dedicated governance structures, and employee training will be best positioned to maintain their competitive edge. The ability to measure AI’s ROI has put retail ahead of other industries. Now, the challenge will be to scale AI in a way that’s sustainable, responsible, and aligned with business goals.
The future of retail marketing is AI-powered. Download the State of AI in Marketing Report for more on how to stay ahead.
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