NRF 2025 Highlights: How Retail Is Evolving This Year and Beyond

Written by Jennifer Johnson, Senior Industry Marketing Director, Retail and Hospitality

The retail landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show, held from January 12-14 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, served as a crucial moment for industry leaders, partners, and vendors to come together and shape the future of retail. With over 40,000 global attendees, 5,000 brands, and more than 1,000 industry partners, the event offered a comprehensive look at the next generation of retail innovation, technology, and strategy.

Throughout the conference, several major themes emerged: driving the future of work with AI, investing in employee and in-store experiences to increase customer satisfaction, and adapting to the constantly changing retail environment through technological innovation. Below we explore five key takeaways that stand out as we head into the future of retail.

1. Retailers Are Ready to See AI Investment in Action

AI was undeniably a dominant force at NRF 2025, with nearly every session discussing its potential impact on the retail sector. The retail industry has long been excited about AI’s capabilities—especially in areas like associate experience, inventory management, pricing, and personalized customer journeys, but many retailers are still struggling to implement these technologies effectively.

In fact, 65% of retailers report difficulty in keeping up with rapidly evolving technologies. Despite this, the potential benefits of AI are undeniable. Retailers are eager to see AI’s promises realized, particularly in areas like AI-powered shopping carts, inventory planning, and personalized recommendations.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has named 2025 as the “Year of the AI Agent,” predicting that digital sales, already surpassing 60% of total retail transactions, will continue to grow as AI becomes increasingly integrated into the shopping experience. From enhancing supply chain efficiency to automating replenishment tasks, AI is expected to help retailers streamline operations and improve the customer journey.

For those on the fence about AI, the message is clear: adapt now or risk being left behind. AI is set to revolutionize how retailers interact with customers, optimize operations, and forecast demand.

Workday Illuminate, the next generation of Workday AI, is built on the world's largest and cleanest HR, workforce, and finance dataset and accelerates manual tasks, assists every employee, and ultimately transforms entire business processes. 

2. Consumers Care About the In-Store Shopping Experience

While e-commerce has continued to grow, one of the most surprising revelations at NRF 2025 was how much consumers still value the in-store experience. While online shopping offers convenience, it can’t replace the tactile, immersive experience that brick-and-mortar stores provide.

Consumers are returning to physical stores with high expectations. They want personalized, engaging experiences that make them feel connected to the brand. Technologies like AI-powered virtual assistants, or “concierge retailers,” are enhancing in-store shopping by learning customers’ preferences and shopping history to offer tailored recommendations.

Sephora's President and CEO, Artemis Patrick, encapsulated this sentiment when she said, “I’m not sure I’ll ever see a world where people aren’t going to want to come in and touch and play with beauty products.” Retailers need to prioritize creating these emotionally engaging and highly personalized experiences to foster deeper brand loyalty.

Additionally, many vendors showcased technologies designed to streamline in-store navigation, improve the checkout process, and create a more engaging shopping environment. These innovations allow retailers to create memorable experiences for customers, ensuring that their stores remain destinations in a world increasingly dominated by online shopping.

Workday’s intelligent data core creates a foundation for data integration and a unified source of data truth that supports analytics, feeds process execution, and works with AI capabilities to augment humans and help drive decisions faster and better. Seamlessly and easily combining external data sources like customer engagement, point of sale, and loyalty systems with Workday’s people and finance data provides deeper insights around HR, finance, and operations. By unifying these data sources into a single, accessible platform, Workday breaks down silos, enabling retailers to leverage real-time insights and predictive analytics. This integrated approach empowers HR, finance, and operational teams to make smarter, more agile decisions, whether it's forecasting financial trends, optimizing workforce planning, or improving customer satisfaction through enhanced employee engagement strategies.

3. Operational Resiliency Strengthens Workplace Culture and Efficiency

In today’s dynamic retail environment, it’s not just about technology for customers—it’s about technology for employees too. Retailers at NRF 2025 discussed how operational resiliency is not only key to surviving disruptions but also essential in strengthening workplace culture.

Retailers are increasingly focusing on labor optimization, demand forecasting, and frontline worker training to create more efficient, engaging work environments. Tools that improve scheduling, workforce management, and operational flexibility are empowering employees to perform at their best, leading to higher engagement and job satisfaction.

Patagonia, a company that prides itself on its strong company culture, exemplifies this shift. Kylie Rylie, head of digital solutions, people, and culture at Patagonia, explained that using technology to handle the little tasks allows employees to focus on what truly matters, like interacting with customers or fostering a collaborative workplace environment. By embracing such technologies, retailers not only improve employee productivity and operational efficiency, but also reduce turnover and create a positive workplace experience.

This growing emphasis on workforce management tools is transforming retail from the inside out, creating a more resilient and engaged workforce that drives business success.

Workday’s workforce management solutions streamline scheduling, time tracking, absence management, and more. Fully integrated with Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), they connect talent management with operational processes like scheduling and time tracking, providing seamless data flow, reducing manual work, improving data accuracy, and delivering real-time insights. As a result, retailers can make better decisions, enhance employee experiences, and streamline operations.

4. Retailers Must Become More Elastic to Survive

The need for agility in retail has never been greater. As consumer demands shift quickly and supply chains remain fragile, retailers must be able to rapidly adapt to fluctuating market conditions. This is where the concept of “elasticity” comes into play.

Elasticity in retail refers to the ability to dynamically adjust business operations to meet demand without sacrificing efficiency. This means that retailers need to be able to scale operations up and down quickly, whether adjusting inventory, workforce, or store openings based on real-time demand and market conditions.

This concept is even more important as new disruptions—such as supply chain challenges or shifts in consumer preferences—can occur at any time. Retailers must be equipped with technology that allows for rapid scalability and flexibility. Cloud-based platforms, data-driven decision-making, and automation are central to achieving this elasticity. By using these tools, retailers can ensure resilience, enhance customer experience, and ultimately drive profitability in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Workday Adaptive Planning helps you model headcount needs and financial impacts, whether you're opening new stores or adjusting operations. It offers real-time insights into sales and performance, enabling faster decision-making. You can run multiple what-if scenarios on customer spend, staffing, margins, and more while giving stakeholders access to key metrics like sales per square foot and customer foot traffic. The platform supports cross-team collaboration, automates reporting, and uses AI-driven predictive forecasting to enhance planning across the business.

5. Governance, Risk, and Compliance Are More Critical Than Ever

In an age where digital transformation is accelerating, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) are top priorities for retailers. From ensuring ethical practices to minimizing regulatory risks, retailers must adopt comprehensive GRC frameworks to maintain their reputations and avoid costly mistakes.

As more retail processes go digital, the need for robust GRC tools becomes even more pressing. Technology can help retailers ensure accountability, manage risks, and stay compliant with ever-changing regulations. However, failing to properly manage GRC could lead to severe consequences, including reputational damage, legal penalties, and lost revenue.

The emphasis at NRF 2025 was clear: retailers must embrace technology that helps manage compliance, mitigate risks, and build strong ethical foundations. By doing so, they not only protect their brand but also create sustainable, long-term value for both customers and employees.

Today we can’t afford for governance to be an afterthought, and Workday was built with that in mind from day one. Workday’s always-on audit capabilities and built-in compliance support tracks all system activity at the worker level. With Workday, you get control and governance capabilities built into the core of the system. This frees up resources to enable the business to spend more time on producing the right information and analysis to ultimately drive better decision making.

NRF 2025 as a Blueprint for the Future of Retail

As we move through the year, the lessons learned from NRF 2025 will shape the next phase of retail innovation. From AI and personalized experiences to building resilient workforces and ensuring strong governance frameworks, retailers are on the cusp of a significant transformation.

For those willing to embrace change and adopt new technologies, the future holds enormous potential. But the key to success lies in balancing technology with human-centered approaches—creating engaging experiences for both employees and customers, fostering resilience in the face of disruption, and ensuring that ethical frameworks remain intact. The retail industry may be evolving, but those who adapt with purpose and vision will be the ones who thrive in the years to come.