AI Can’t Replace Merchandisers, But It Can Supercharge Their Value

Zohar Gilad is cofounder and CEO of Fast Simon.

​I recently came across this McKinsey research from 2020: 52% of all retail activities can be automated. At first glance, that sounds like a justification to reduce headcount, especially given the improvements in automation technology since this research was published.

But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see more to the story, especially in merchandising.

Yes, AI is changing how merchandisers do their jobs. This is especially apparent at entry level, where junior merchandisers spend much of their time completing manual tasks like data entry.

But successful merchandising also involves a lot of judgment, which is where humans still outshine AI.

What agentic AI can do is act as a force multiplier for transferable skills. Instead of replacing merchandisers, AI removes bottlenecks and gives time and control back to brand teams.

The merchandiser still decides what matters, but AI handles the volume.

Merchandising’s Two Buckets: Inspiration And Execution

In merchandising, every operational task falls into one of two buckets: inspiration or execution.

Inspiration is the human domain. This includes what can’t (yet?) be calculated by an algorithm: taste, brand essence and qualitative judgment. How do you inspire a customer to click on a product? How do you manifest the essence of a brand? Indirect effects and inspiration are harder to measure.

These questions are where human judgment is valuable and where merchandisers are essential.

The other bucket, execution, is where automation makes a difference. AI can handle the millions of real-time micro-decisions, like product ranking and inventory adjustments, that human merchandisers can’t manage consistently at scale.

A human merchandiser couldn’t possibly create a personalized virtual storefront for every shopper that visits their brand’s website, but AI can do that quickly.

The teams that learn to use AI for execution will have more time to focus on inspiration.