NRF 2026: The Year Retail Got Real about Agentic AI
Walking the floor at NRF 2026, one thing was crystal clear: the retail industry has moved past the AI hype phase. This year was all about execution, scale, and trust.
Our team spent three incredible days at NRF, and the energy was electric with over 40,000 people in attendance. From the moment we kicked off, the conversations centered on one challenge: how do we get reliable, real-time insights into the hands of every merchant, allocator, and store manager without sacrificing accuracy?
Accelerating Innovation with URBN
One of the absolute highlights of my week was getting onstage with our partners at URBN. Alongside Paul Reigel, Sean Rattay, and Grace Barruga, we shared the stage to discuss "Merchandising Agility: Innovation at Urban Outfitters with Velocity Data & Strategy AI".
URBN is a great example of what real retail agility looks like. We showcased how they are leveraging Strategy’s AI and our Universal Semantic Layer to drive growth across their marquee brands, including Anthropologie, Free People, Nuuly, and Urban Outfitters.
A few key takeaways from our session:
- Tier 2 Questions, Answered: URBN’s AI strategy seeks to answer "tier 2" questions on-demand, removing initial investigation barriers so teams can move straight to action.
- The Power of Semantics: We showed how a shared semantic layer ensures business agreement on data definitions, plus enhanced accuracy and user trust in answers.
- Velocity at Scale: For global brands with thousands of users, scale is the ultimate test. We looked at how URBN distributes master performance reports that give merchants, allocators, and planners everything they need to adapt to market disruption.
The Three Themes That Dominated NRF
1. Agentic AI & The Model Context Protocol (MCP)
The biggest technical "aha" moment at our booth was the Model Context Protocol. We saw a huge interest in the scale at which we can get accurate reports out to people. By adopting MCP, we’ve made it possible for our AI agents to securely "plug and play" with a retailer's entire ecosystem. Whether connecting to Claude or internal productivity tools, MCP acts as the “universal connector” that bridges the gap between your data and your AI agents.
2. Rapid Deployment: From Data to Agent in <15 Minutes
Speed was the second most common topic. We demonstrated how Strategy’s semantic layer allows for rapid agent creation in less than 15 minutes. That kind of turnaround means merchandising teams can go from a solid data foundation to a working AI assistant in a single afternoon.
3. Accuracy Over Everything
None of this matters if the data is wrong. We saw a huge amount of interest in our ability to deliver the "truth behind the business" to tens of thousands of users. Whether it's Victoria’s Secret (1,300 stores), Schwarz Group (20,000 users), or the data-led strategies at Tapestry and GUESS, top retailers are proving that Strategy is the platform for maintaining data consistency at scale.
We were also inspired by the sessions from our other leading customers, including Hilton and Vuori, whose session on scaling personalized engagement for millions of guests highlighted the shift toward agentic AI that we are seeing across the board.
Sunday Sessions and Beyond
It was a personal thrill to see our "Sunday Sessions" in action—using AI agents to save merchants over 20 report reviews every single Sunday. This isn't just a technical achievement; it’s about giving people their time back to focus on high-impact strategy instead of manual data digging.
As we head into 2026, Strategy is more committed than ever to being the partner that helps you outpace market disruption.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, and a special thank you to the URBN team for sharing their journey with us. Learn more about how we help retailers here.
Lauren O’Connor
Lauren leads Education at MicroStrategy, helping organizations successfully implement, adopt, and maximize their BI tools.