Q01 · AI & AgentsTrial▲ AcceleratingHorizon: Now

Small Language Models for In-Store Assistants

Compact, fine-tuned models running on in-store devices and kiosks.

Running fine-tuned SLMs on in-store hardware avoids both the latency and connectivity risk of calling a cloud model for every associate or kiosk interaction on the shop floor.

Sequencing

Builds on Evaluation-Driven AI for Recommendations

Small Language Models across other industries

Compact, fine-tuned models for narrow, high-volume tasks — the primary inference-cost lever.

OperationsCost

From the Retail & Consumer Emerging Technology & Innovation Radar, Edition 2026.1, published 2026-10-01.

An independent, industry-agnostic radar curated by Shailesh Kumar.