As retail leaders prepare for the next decade of growth, the central challenge facing C-suite executives is no longer identifying new technologies—it is separating commercial reality from market hype.
On 17th November 2026, the Retail World Forum Dubai at Address Sky View will address this challenge head-on. Powered by Fast Company Middle East, the single-day executive summit brings together regional and global retail leaders to analyze the core forces transforming retail operations, customer experience, and business models.
The meticulously structured agenda moves from enterprise technology and algorithmic operations in the morning to consumer psychology, luxury evolution, and strategic resilience in the afternoon.
The Intelligent Enterprise — Merchandising, Analytics, and Real AI ROI
The morning sessions open with an exploration of executive leadership during times of global economic transition, establishing a clear roadmap for building resilience into corporate culture and strategy.
The agenda immediately transitions into operational technology, tackling two of the most urgent questions facing modern retail boards:
-
Price It Right, Stock It Smart: Strategic sessions examine how predictive analytics, machine learning, and dynamic pricing models transform traditional merchandising. Executives will unpack how to balance automated demand forecasting with human commercial insight to eliminate stockouts and protect margins.
-
Can AI Deliver Meaningful ROI Today? A candid, debate-style session addressing whether artificial intelligence is generating measurable bottom-line value or remaining an expensive experiment. The focus centers on real-world case studies, implementation barriers, and capital allocation frameworks that deliver clear commercial returns.
The morning operational flow moves seamlessly from leadership resilience keynotes into executive growth debates, followed by intelligent merchandising breakdowns and rigorous commercial AI audits.
Beyond the Chatbot — Deploying Agentic AI Across the Value Chain
A flagship focus of the morning program is the evolution of artificial intelligence from conversational tools to autonomous operational agents.
While first-generation AI retail investments centered on customer-facing chatbots, Agentic AI represents a structural leap forward. Autonomous AI agents are taking over complex, back-end operational tasks across self-learning retail networks:
-
Supply Chain & Logistics Optimization: AI agents dynamically re-route inventory, manage supplier orders, and predict fulfillment bottlenecks in real time.
-
Automated Decision-Making: Moving from static reporting dashboards to autonomous systems that adjust regional stock allocations without manual intervention.
-
Operational Readiness: Strategic discussions explore the governance, data infrastructure, and risk protocols required before enterprises hand greater operational autonomy to machine systems.
The Connected Consumer — Experiential Spaces, Unified Channels, and Marketplaces
The afternoon agenda shifts focus toward the evolving Gulf consumer, analyzing how shifting demographics, digital adoption, and hyper-connected lifestyles are reshaping physical and digital channels.
The afternoon consumer and channel pipeline connects tomorrow’s consumer insights directly to retail-tainment destinations, unified channel integration, and the evolution of physical malls into digital marketplaces.
-
Retail-tainment & Destination Building: Explores how physical stores are evolving from transactional points of sale into immersive cultural and entertainment destinations that drive footfall and long-term brand affinity.
-
Unified Commerce Execution: Moves beyond fragmented omnichannel strategies toward truly unified retail—linking customer data across digital apps, physical POS systems, and loyalty engines to deliver frictionless customer journeys.
-
From Malls to Marketplaces: A high-level executive panel evaluating how rising digital marketplaces and changing consumer expectations are transforming physical shopping malls, forcing operators to rethink store formats and leasing models.
New Revenue Frontiers — Luxury, Tourism, and Business Model Diversification
The final sessions of the afternoon focus on expanding market access and unlocking non-traditional revenue streams across globalized retail corridors:
-
Expanding Access to Luxury: Unpacks how top luxury houses are democratizing access through digital platforms and social commerce—reaching younger, aspirational demographics while carefully preserving brand prestige and exclusivity.
-
Tourism & Cross-Border Commerce: Examines strategies for capturing global tourist spending, leveraging international marketplaces, and building seamless cross-border retail engines across regional trade corridors.
-
Unlocking New Revenue Streams: Details how forward-thinking retailers are diversifying beyond product margin—monetizing retail media networks, paid subscriptions, financial services, and digital experiences to build recurring revenue.
The forum closes with an executive C-suite panel reflecting on Building Resilient Retail Businesses for the Next Decade, providing attendees with a clear operational strategy for balancing short-term stability with long-term commercial innovation.
As retail continues to evolve across markets, the ideas shaping its future are increasingly being defined through global industry dialogue. Retail World Forum & Awards brings together senior retail leaders, technology innovators, and ecosystem stakeholders across high-growth markets to explore the strategies and innovations driving modern commerce—alongside a global awards platform. To partner, speak, or attend, log on to retailworldforum.com
