Skip links
Book Tickets

Retail's 5th Annual GEN AI Industry Summit '26
- Agenda -

8.30

Registration and barista coffee

Arrive, collect your lanyard and connect with fellow retail leaders over barista coffee before the Summit begins.

9.00

Welcome - Where Are We Really?

Drawing on NORA’s State of AI in Retail research, Patrick will establish where retailers genuinely are today, expose the gap between AI ambition and implementation, and frame the tensions shaping the day: value, ownership, trust, capability and scale.

- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisor

9.20

Opening Keynote: AI in Practice: Buddy, six months on

An inside look at Buddy: how customers are using it, what Bunnings has learned and what comes next

- Vivek Pradhan, General Manager, Data & AI, Bunnings

9.45

Fireside: Leading People Through AI-Driven Transformation

- Michelle Francis, General Manager Customer Success, Australia Post
- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

10.05

Panel: The Commerce Shift

- James Johnson, Enterprise Leader - AU & NZ, Shopify

10.25

Fireside: Inside the Retailer

- Alberto Simongini, General Manager Engineering, The Good Guys
- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

10.45

Morning Tea

11.15

Keynote: The Invisible Concierge

- Sachi Wickramage, Head of Technology & Experience, The digiDirect Group

11.35

Panel: Relevance at Scale

- Alexander Mahr, Director, ANZ Region, Coveo
- Johan Nyberg, Chief Digital & eCommerce Officer, Elite Supplements
- Paula Mitchell, Former Digital General Manager, Freedom Australia

11.55

Fireside: Agentic Operations: From Possibility to Practice

- Sohaib Mushtaq, ServiceNow Delivery Manager, Fujitsu
- Jason Burns, ServiceNow Manager, Bunnings

12.15

The Room Takes Over

Retailers work through the key questions emerging from the morning and identify the opportunities, barriers and priorities that matter most to their organisations.

- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

12.35

Lunch

1.25

What the Room Thinks

The strongest themes, tensions and questions emerging from the room.

- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

1.45

Panel: From POC to Production

What does it actually take to move beyond experimentation and turn AI into something the business can use, trust and scale?

- Dominic O’Halloran, Head of Data & Analytics, MECCA
- Mary Helen Saba, Head of Product & CX, Wesfarmers OneDigital
- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

2.15

AI in Retail: From Experimentation to Everyday Impact

Michael Hill’s three-year AI journey explores what it takes to move from experimentation to everyday adoption, from choosing the right problems to embedding AI into workflows and scaling it across the business.

The conversation will also explore the foundations required to scale AI: data and information management, in-house capability, build-versus-buy decisions and where Michael Hill sees the next wave of value.

- Matt Keays, CTO, Michael Hill
- Shannon Moir, Director of AI, Fusion5

2.45

From Conversation to Action - Breakout Sessions

Turning the day’s discussion into the priorities, decisions and actions leaders want to take forward.

Breakout Session 1

Get AI-Ready: Build the Foundations for Smarter Commerce

AI is reshaping how customers discover, evaluate and buy. But before retailers can unlock its full potential, they need the right foundations in place. In this practical session, Shopify will show retailers how to assess their AI readiness, turn product data into a competitive advantage and prepare for the next generation of search, personalisation and agentic commerce. Walk away with clear, actionable steps to move from AI curiosity to commerce-ready action.

Moderator: Toby Wallace-Crabbe, Lead Solution Engineer, Shopify

Breakout Session 2

Retail AI Masterclass: From Experimentation to Value Generation

Practical strategies for accelerating AI adoption across the retail value chain

- Avneet Chawla, Director of ServiceNow Transformation, Fujitsu
- Paul Monks, Director AI, Fujitsu

Moderator: Mitch Tomazic Partner, Uvance Wayfinders Consulting, Fujitsu

4.15

What Are We Taking Forward? - Closing Reflections

A fast, collective close capturing the most important ideas, decisions and questions from the day, with Patrick bringing the Summit together and landing the key takeaways.

- Patrick Rechsteiner, NORA AI Advisory

4.30

Summit Drinks

COUNT ME IN!
This website uses cookies to improve your web experience.