Agentic AI Takes Center Stage and AI Workforce Transformation

Agentic AI is no longer a conference topic. It is a commercial reality, and the deployments happening right now in retail and hospitality are rewriting what "customer service" and "workforce efficiency" mean. In this episode, Greg Buzek walks through the most significant AI deployments of the week, from consumer-facing shopping agents to autonomous warehouse drones, with real case studies and real numbers.From Jet's Pizza surpassing 10 million AI-enabled orders to Dermalogica cutting 120 hours of manual warehouse labor every month with autonomous drones, the evidence is piling up fast. This episode covers both sides of the agentic AI story: what it means for shoppers and what it means for the employees who serve them.Why the shift from "talking about AI" to "deploying AI" is now undeniable across retailHow DoorDash and Uber are using Google Gemini on Android devices to deliver true agentic shoppingWhat Best Buy's partnership with OpenAI and Google signals about the future of big-ticket retailHow Jet's Pizza turned a simple text conversation into 10 million completed AI ordersWhy Burger King's Patty is headed to all 7,000 US locations and what it actually doesHow Lowe's redesigned the paint desk experience with smart kiosks and mobile alertsWhy autonomous drones at Dermalogica produced a 600% increase in inventory scan frequencyWhat five lightning-round deployments tell us about the breadth of this transformation0:22 — Episode overview: AI moving past the hype and into real-world deployment across customer and employee experiences 0:41 — Segment 1 opens: AI as your personal shopping agent 0:58 — The agentic AI shift explained: from what-if to deployed reality; what "agentic" actually means for the consumer 1:17 — DoorDash and Uber pilot agentic AI on Google Pixel and Samsung phones via Google Gemini; one voice command handles ordering and booking end-to-end 1:36 — Best Buy integrates its full product catalog into ChatGPT and works with Google so shoppers can discover and purchase through Gemini and Google Search; AI becomes an inspiration engine for big-ticket purchases 2:00 — Jet's Pizza surpasses 10 million AI-enabled orders; the mechanics of their text-based AI reorder system explained 2:40 — Segment 2 opens: AI in the workplace; the employee-side story 2:59 — Burger King rolls out AI voice assistant "Patty" across all 7,000 US locations; Patty coaches employees through headsets in real time, covering order accuracy, upselling, friendliness scoring, and operational alerts 3:23 — Lowe's transforms the paint desk: from handwritten notes and long lines to smart kiosks and mobile alerts; associates shift from administrative tasks to actual customer guidance 3:42 — Dermalogica deploys autonomous AI-powered drones in warehouse operations; inventory scan frequency increases 600% and the company saves 120 hours of manual labor every month 4:00 — Lightning Round begins 4:00 — 7-Eleven Philippines deploys NCR Voyix POS solution across 4,500 stores 4:10 — JD Sports rolls out Checkpoint RFID inventory tracking to nearly 1,000 stores across Europe and China 4:21 — IKEA deploys self-driving delivery vehicles; customer wait times drop from 6 hours to 2 hours 4:32 — Schlotzky's introduces a new smaller store format built around digital ordering; projected to reduce operating costs by 25% 4:43 — Home Depot equips delivery drivers with new handhelds enabling real-time tracking for large-item deliveries including appliances and lumber 5:00 — Big Takeaway: the tipping point has passed; AI is a practical, deployed tool solving real operational problems today, not a future concept 5:29 — Closing: full narrative, 40+ case studies, and more news available at ihlservices.com Research and Events:IHL Retail AI Pulse Webinar — March 26, 2026; live AI deployment demos and real customer wins — https://www.ihlservices.comFull weekly retail technology newsletter with 40+ case studies — https://www.ihlservices.com