Most companies handed their people AI tools and got faster emails. H&M rebuilt the work itself and saw shopper drop-offs fall 80%. In this episode of Retail Reality Check, we look at why AI workflow redesign in retail separates the winners from everyone else, and what it takes to move past bolting AI onto old processes. The theme comes from IHL Group President Greg Buzek, who spoke at BlueStar's VARTECH event. He challenged the room to picture how their organizations would run with AI at the core of the work, and his advice was to take the time to rethink. We pair that message with McKinsey research on workflow redesign, IHL Group data on how retail winners invest in AI, and four real deployments: H&M's intent-driven onsite search, shelf image recognition at Manhattan Beer Distributors, Diebold Nixdorf kiosks at Dave & Buster's, and Oracle cloud applications at Co-op Live. We close with a lightning round of this week's headlines, from Google's commerce protocol updates to Amazon's smart glasses trials, and one question to take into your week: if you rebuilt your most time-consuming workflow with AI at the center, what would change, and how would you measure it? Why handing employees AI tools is not the same as redesigning work. McKinsey research shows only 11% of leaders have redesigned roles, workflows, and operating models around AI. The value gap: of those redesigners, 48% report enterprise value, compared with 13% of organizations that simply hand employees AI tools. IHL Group research finding that retail winners invest 95% more in AI adoption than laggards, aimed at automating routine tasks and optimizing complex decisions in real time. How H&M's intent-driven search, live in more than 60 markets, cut soft exits by 80% and exits from search by 30%. Why shelf image recognition matters: IHL's Shelf Intelligence research shows retailers self-report 58% on-shelf availability accuracy and 57% planogram compliance, and 39% cannot reach 50% on planograms. How connected systems pay off: IHL research shows profit winners are 224% more likely, and sales winners 48% more likely, to use cloud retail management systems that unify POS, inventory, and reporting. The winners' playbook: pick one workflow, give AI the knowledge it needs, set clear guardrails, measure the whole outcome, then carry what you learn into the next process. 00:28 - Retail Agent Con, November 17 www.retailagentcon.com 01:16 - Greg Buzek at BlueStar VARTECH: take the time to rethink 01:36 - McKinsey: 11% have redesigned work, and 48% of them see value 01:57 - A warning for software vendors: the vibe-coded POS 02:19 - IHL Group: retail winners invest 95% more in AI adoption 02:41 - H&M cuts soft exits 80% with intent-driven onsite search 03:08 - IHL 2026 study: personalization is the top technology priority 03:34 - Shelf intelligence: Manhattan Beer Distributors and aiMerch 04:28 - Dave & Buster's self-service kiosks with Diebold Nixdorf 05:19 - Co-op Live connects food and beverage with finance 05:44 - The winners' playbook: one workflow at a time 06:10 - Lightning round: Google, JD Sports, Lowe's, TikTok Shop, Amazon and more 08:41 - Your challenge: rebuild one workflow with AI at the center