Shoptalk Vegas Day 1: Gap, Sephora And Wayfair Discuss Retail In The Age Of Ai

Retail in the age of AI is the overarching theme of the 2026 Shoptalk Spring event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Running from March 24–26, the conference draws retail’s biggest players. Speakers include Anca Marola, Sephora’s global chief digital officer; Sven Gerjets, Gap’s chief technology officer; and Niraj Shah, Wayfair’s CEO and co-chair.

These executives agreed: staying ahead in AI is essential for retail survival and long-term success.

Building a next-generation shopping experience

In a panel moderated by Hilary Milnes, executive Americas editor at Vogue Business, Anca Marola, Sephora’s global chief digital officer, and Mahak Sharma, OpenAI’s head of product partnerships, discussed the evolving role of ChatGPT in commerce.

Sharma said there have been several major shifts in how consumers engage with ChatGPT when shopping over the past two years, mainly in the journey, which has shifted from transactional to more inquisitive. Today, users are looking for answers, not just links and products.

“When they come to our platform, they look for responses and direct answers to their questions,” she said. “We see this as a paradigm shift in the way we need to respond to the user to not just supply product information. We need to understand the context of the user’s inquiry and to understand the intent behind the question that they’re asking, so this has been a really big shift.”

Additionally, Sharma noted that when a user engages with ChatGPT, they now expect a highly personalised response. Considering these shifts, it came as no surprise when Sephora’s Marola announced that the brand launched its own ChatGPT app to create an AI-enhanced consumer experience.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be working in this field right now, because the pace of innovation is just absolutely insane,” Marola said. “We’re working really hard to get something done today, because by tomorrow, it’s already old news, and it’s no longer cool. So everything is changing very quickly, and it’s already a challenge as a retailer to stay up to date and test and learn.”

Retailers, therefore, must embrace AI-driven change to bridge online and in-store experiences. Marola explained that to achieve this, Sephora will use a three-pronged approach through its ChatGPT app. The company will continue building intelligence and customer knowledge, since “intelligence equals trust with the customer.” It also aims to evolve touchpoints for a fluid, conversational future and go where customers seek advice.

“You cannot stop progress, that’s the baseline,” Marola said. “So you either embrace it or you don’t; the risk lies in not embracing progress. Channels will always continue to evolve; they have been evolving, and they’re more fragmented than ever. But what will never change is the fact that the customer is seeking advice from people who know best. What’s at stake is to remain that trusted advisor. In a way, [the launch of this app] is making us get back to the core of our value for the customer and double down on that.”

Using AI to amp up personalisation

In a panel moderated by CNBC retail reporter Gabrielle Fonrouge, Gap’s CTO, Sven Gerjets, discussed how the corporation is leveraging AI to enhance personalisation and improve the customer shopping experience.

Gerjets compared Gap’s technology approach to a three-tiered pyramid: enabling, optimising, and reinventing. For the team, enabling means getting every employee up to speed on AI. They train everyone to view AI as a companion, not just a tool.

“As people learn to utilise capabilities for their own jobs, they start adopting processes that are AI-centric much more quickly,” Gerjets said. “Right now, innovation is moving so fast that we have to keep trying things, and if something doesn’t work out today, it will work tomorrow. So it is really important to focus on that.”

The tip of the pyramid is centred on reinvention. Here, the company asks which tasks AI can handle rather than people. This approach helps the team move quickly, test new ideas, and focus on major value drivers.

During the panel, Gerjets announced Gap’s partnership with Bold Metrics, an AI fit-and-sizing platform. The goal is to improve the digital shopping experience and address sizing issues for customers. Gerjets argued that it’s better to focus on fundamental retail improvements rather than flashier, “cool” technology.

“There are a lot of things out there that are being launched in companies and in stores that feel very kitschy to me,” Gerjets said. “They feel very strongly that it’s just tech for tech’s sake, and we’re not focused on that, but on what tech enables – whether that’s creating something valuable for our customers or our employees.”

From disruptor to dominant: How continuous evolution keeps Wayfair one step ahead

Finishing off with one of the last panels of the day was Niraj Shah, the co-founder and CEO of online furniture giant Wayfair. Once a leader in dot-com retail, Wayfair introduced customers to buying furniture online. Shah said the company remains focused on evolving to meet customers where and how they like to shop.

One way the brand is doing this is through the launch of Wayfair Stylist, an AI-powered chatbot that helps customers not only visualise how furniture would look in their space but also design a layout.

“We believe that people are a big piece of how you make this category feel very special and how it works,” Shah said.

Whether helping customers visualise their future home, keeping Wayfair’s 20 million-plus digital SKU catalogue accurate and searchable, or making the supply chain and delivery network run smoothly, AI is inseparable from the company’s future.

If retailers want to follow in these retail giants’ footsteps, it would be best to adopt a similar approach to innovation, with an open-minded attitude of discovery rather than one of fear and hesitation.

Further reading: How will China’s chip growth reshape global retail supply chains?

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