Kenyan and African retailers generate enormous volumes of information through point-of-sale systems, inventory platforms, loyalty programmes, e-commerce, mobile applications, social commerce, delivery platforms and digital payments. However, much of that data remains fragmented, underused and disconnected from everyday business decisions. In this special episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I moderate a discussion from the RETRAK Retail Summit 2026 titled: Smarter Retail: Turning Data, AI and Insights into Competitive Advantage The session took place on Thursday, 14 May 2026, at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi and brought together four experts representing retail entrepreneurship, digital payments, financial-services platforms and retail technology, as follows: Judy Waruiru - Regional Managing Director, Network InternationalSonal Haria - Co-Founder and CEO, Canvas Cosmetics, Co-Founder, CB Consulting & Media GroupEric Muriuki - Group Director, Digital Business, CEO, LOOP DFS, NCBA GroupSiddesh Narkar - Head of Product, Compulynx Topics Covered Why many retailers are data-rich but insight-poorThe importance of connecting fragmented customer dataBuilding a unified view across stores, websites, apps and paymentsWhy data readiness must come before AI readinessUsing data to improve product development, pricing and assortmentHow Canvas Cosmetics used customer insights to guide product developmentUsing payments data to understand churn, market movements and fraudAI-supported replenishment, stock management and pricingHow AI can improve sales productivity and outreachBalancing personalisation with customer privacy and trustPrivacy-by-design approaches to retail dataHow AI agents may soon shop and pay on behalf of consumersPractical AI actions retailers can take during the next 12 monthsKey Message Retailers do not need to begin with an expensive, enterprise-wide AI programme.They should begin by digitizing operations, organising existing information, selecting one or two commercially important problems, measuring the results and building from the small wins.AI can analyze more information and provide options faster, but human judgement remains essential. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the RETRAK panel00:44 The state of retail in Kenya and Africa07:07 Sonal Haria on combining data with human judgement09:20 Judy Waruiru on fragmented customer data10:43 Eric Muriuki on data readiness and AI15:50 Siddesh Narkar on clean and usable retail data17:32 How Canvas Cosmetics used data for product development21:12 Payments data, customer journeys, churn and fraud26:39 AI as an intelligent wrapper around the business33:53 Audience questions begin34:36 Preparing and labelling business data for AI38:25 AI-generated cosmetic formulations and human oversight39:44 Understanding wider market and industry trends40:48 Using payments data for retail-market intelligence42:07 Turning financial-service providers into insight partners44:59 How AI improved sales productivity and outreach46:33 AI personalization, privacy and customer trust49:15 Cloud and on-premise AI deployment50:08 Agentic commerce and the machine as the next customer53:27 One action retailers should take in the next 12 months57:42 Closing remarks The Pure Digital Passion Podcast explores the people, organizations, technologies and ideas shaping digital transformation, marketing, media, innovation and business across Kenya and Africa. Subscribe for more conversations with African technology leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, policymakers and innovators. #Retail #RetailTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataAnalytics #DigitalTransformation #Payments #Fintech #CustomerExperience #Kenya #Africa #PureDigitalPassion