Agentic AI for Retail Merchandising: Transforming Buying & Planning
S5E12 The Future of AI in Merchandising & Buying with Noah Herschman and Jeff Fish
In Season 5, Episode 12 of The Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Noah Herschman and Jeff Fish of Intelo.ai to explore how agentic AI is revolutionizing retail merchandising and buying. From the art and science of retail merchandising to the persistent challenges of planning and allocation, this episode dives deep into how collaborative intelligence empowers merchandisers, planners, and buyers to make smarter, faster, and more creative decisions.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why merchandising is the “hub of the wheel” in retail success
- The balance between creativity and analytics in buying decisions
- How agentic AI enhances human judgment without replacing it
- Real-world examples of AI improving in-season planning and merchandising financial plans
- Why spreadsheets aren’t going away, but AI agents make them smarter
- The future of retail technology and how Agentic AI delivers superpowers to retail merchandisers
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About our Guests
Noah Herschman. Senior Industry Advisor, Intelo.ai
Noah is an ecommerce strategist who’s been shaping online retail since the 1990s. He’s held leadership roles at Amazon, eBay, and Groupon. As a Microsoft Senior Retail Industry Architect, he has worked with more than 150 global retail & CPG clients. Noah has lived in China for 15 years and fluent in Mandarin, Noah operates out of Hong Kong. He is currently a Senior Industry Advisor for Intelo.ai
Jeffrey Fish, Co-CEO, Intelo.ai
Jeffrey Fish Co-Founded the Chatly platform serving global retail & hospitality brands targeting the China market (exited to Salesforce in 2020). He then led Salesforce China in partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Now he's scaling up Intelo's Collaborative Intelligence Agentic Merchandising & Planning Platform.
Chapters:
00:00 Previews
01:39 Show Intro
04:13 Welcome Noah Herschman & Jeff Fish
04:37 Guest Backgrounds and Expertise
07:33 The Importance of Retail Merchandising
11:41 Challenges and Solutions in Modern Merchandising
16:25 The Role of Agentic AI in Merchandising
23:09 Future of Agentic AI and Merchandising
40:04 Practical Steps for Retailers
41:36 How to Reach Out And Contact
42:10 Show Close
Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:
Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail
