Transforming data into intelligence. And intelligence into measurable business outcomes
Retailers generate vast amounts of data across their value chain, yet turning this data into measurable business value remains a persistent challenge. While AI pilots deliver promising insights, too many stall before making real impact at scale.
This article explains how CGI helps retailers move beyond AI pilots and experimentation, transforming data into actionable insight and delivering tangible outcomes at scale.
Retail’s data paradox: rich insights, limited returns
Retailers sit on a goldmine of data - from customer interactions and transactions to supply chains and operations. Yet unlocking its value remains a challenge.
According to MIT’s 2025 GenAI Divide study, 95% of organizations fail to achieve measurable returns from their AI investments. CGI’s own 2025 Voice of Our Clients research, based on more than 1,800 executive interviews, echoes this challenge. Among 113 retail leaders, three priorities consistently stand out:
- Improving operational efficiency to control costs and enhance performance
- Modernizing IT landscapes and legacy systems
- Accelerating digital transformation through AI, automation, and data-driven technologies
While these priorities are well understood, many organizations struggle to translate ambition into execution. Too often, AI initiatives stall at the pilot stage - delivering insights, but not impact.
What retail leaders are saying
Insights from more than 1,800 executive interviews reveal a common frustration: organizations are investing in AI, but returns remain elusive. A strong majority of retail leaders report that AI initiatives often stall at the pilot stage, failing to deliver sustained value at scale.
The message from the market is consistent. Leaders are no longer asking whether AI can create value, they are asking:
- How do we connect AI initiatives to real business outcomes?
- How do we move from isolated use cases to embedded capabilities?
- How do we ensure AI investments deliver measurable returns?
In short, retailers want AI that works in practice, not just in principle.
To illustrate how this works in practice, let’s focus on one critical area: sales, pricing, and payments.
Success story: AI-powered pricing optimization for a global retailer
The challenge
A leading global health and beauty retailer struggled to optimize pricing across multiple sales channels. Pricing was largely static, discounts were inconsistently applied, and valuable customer and sales data remained underutilized. As a result, the retailer faced margin pressure and missed revenue opportunities.
The approach
CGI implemented advanced AI tooling to uncover patterns in promotional performance. Using machine learning models to analyze historical price and sales data, the team developed a dynamic pricing engine that incorporated:
- Historical sales trends
- Competitor pricing intelligence
- Real-time demand signals
By combining data analytics, behavioral insights, and deep retail expertise, CGI translated complex datasets into actionable pricing strategies. This enabled automated, data-driven promotion and discount decisions - without compromising margin control.
The outcome
The retailer achieved clear, measurable results:
- Increased sales volume and conversion rates
- Improved margin control through optimized discounting
- Faster and more agile responses to market changes
From pilot to performance
At CGI, we don’t just implement AI - we make it work. Our structured, end-to-end approach ensures that every AI initiative is:
- Aligned to business strategy
- Pilot-tested with measurable outcomes
- Scalable and governed
- Ethical, secure, and responsible
Our AI delivery framework
- Identify & scope: Define where AI can deliver the greatest business value by aligning initiatives with strategic priorities.
- Design pilot: Design and validate initial AI use cases that demonstrate feasibility and value, supported by clear KPIs and governance principles.
- Pilot execution: Deploy AI solutions in controlled environments, monitor performance, and gather user feedback and operational data.
- Decide & scale: Evaluate results against predefined baselines, prioritize high-ROI use cases, and build a roadmap for enterprise-wide rollout.
- Govern & monitor: Ensure sustainable and responsible AI adoption through continuous governance, compliance, performance monitoring, and improvement loops.
Where are you in your AI journey?
From strategy to execution, CGI empowers retailers to transform data into actionable intelligence and measurable business results. With deep retail expertise and proven methodologies, we support organizations at every stage of AI adoption—from defining the right strategy to scaling solutions that deliver real impact.
Let’s build an AI strategy that delivers measurable value: from insight to execution.
Over de auteur
Paula Mõik
Business Consultant, Retail & Consumer Services
Paula is a Business Analyst and specializing in requirements engineering, data analysis, and business process optimization. She translates complex business challenges into clear, well-structured requirements and plays a key role in defining and designing effective solutions. Her experience includes ...
