The retail industry is riding a wave of artificial intelligence enthusiasm, but a new national survey reveals a sobering truth: while almost half of retailers now use AI on a weekly basis, the vast majority struggle to leverage it at scale, held back by data fragmentation, technical hurdles, and rising costs.
AI Adoption Is Rapid, Yet Readiness Trails Far Behind
The 2025 State of AI in Retail report from Amperity, an AI-powered customer data cloud, surveyed 1,000 professionals across marketing, IT, data, and executive leadership roles. The findings are striking:
- 45% of retailers say they now use AI daily or several times a week
- 97% plan to maintain or increase AI investment in the coming year
Yet, in a harsh reality check, only 11% feel fully prepared to deploy AI tools at scale.
“Retailers believe in AI’s potential to drive loyalty and lifetime value—but belief alone won’t close the gap…
between ambition and execution,” said Tony Owens, CEO of Amperity. “What’s needed is unified, actionable customer data—regardless of where it resides.
With Amperity’s patented identity resolution, retailers can unify data without moving it, transforming fragmented records into complete customer profiles that fuel AI and measurable business results”.
Customer-Facing AI: A Promising Yet Underused Avenue Retailers are betting big on AI’s potential to unlock better customer experiences: 63% expect AI to enhance customer loyalty 65% anticipate higher customer lifetime value But in actual practice, adoption falls short: Only 43% currently use AI in customer-facing applications (personalization, chatbots, tailored marketing) Just 23% have AI in production to resolve customer identities or prepare data for marketing This signals a missed opportunity for deeper, data-driven customer engagement and highlights the gap between optimism and real execution.
CDPs Deliver a Competitive Edge Retailers equipped with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)—especially those using advanced customer data clouds—stand out from their peers. According to the survey: 60% of CDP-equipped retailers use AI daily or…
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