NEW YORK -- Retailers lose revenue every time an online store goes down, a system fails, or frontline employees lack the tools to act in the moment. Meanwhile, generative AI platforms and AI agents are creating new opportunities to increase online retail experiences and conversion rates. Yet while AI has the potential to help retailers drive better margins and competitive advantage, many still find it challenging to translate experimentation into consistent, day-to-day operational and revenue improvements.

Today at NRF: Retail’s Big Show, Lenovo announced their latest AI-powered solutions - Smart Store Services and AI Retail Assistants - designed to deliver immediate, measurable value for retailers. Supported by Lenovo Hybrid AI Services, the solutions embed AI directly into daily retail operations, helping retailers prevent disruptions before revenue is lost, support associates in real time, and scale AI into repeatable performance across physical and digital stores.

“Retail leaders don’t invest in AI for experimentation, they invest to keep stores running, protect revenue, and serve customers better,” said Patricia Wilkey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, International Sales, Solutions & Services Group, Lenovo. “These solutions are designed to deliver value immediately by embedding AI into everyday retail operations and scaling it reliably across the enterprise.”

1. Smart Store Services: AI-led Capabilities for Operational Resilience, Store Uptime and Customer Experience

Store downtime, caused by POS failures, payment disruptions, or connectivity issues, directly impacts revenue and customer trust. Lenovo’s Smart Store Services are designed to prevent those losses by keeping stores operational and transactions flowing.

The AI-driven solution helps detect, predict, and resolve issues before customers or employees are affected, reducing downtime by up to 50% and resolving issues 60% faster according to internal Lenovo data.

On day one, retailers gain:

·Real-time visibility into store health across IT and operational systems
·Automated incident prioritization based on business impact
·A single command center connecting IT, operations, and store support teams

Many issues are resolved automatically or remotely, reducing dependence on costly and time-consuming on-site support. Retailers see 30-40% lower IT support costs and reduced operational friction across large store networks.

Smart Store Services also empower frontline employees rather than adding complexity. Delivered through a simple, unified experience, one device, one app, the solution gives associates guided self-service tools to resolve common issues confidently. Frontline teams spend less time troubleshooting technology and more time serving customers, while manager involvement in issue resolution drops by more than half.

By embedding AI directly into daily store operations, where it continuously learns from real incidents and automates resolution, Smart Store Services move AI from isolated pilots to repeatable, scalable value across every store.

2. AI Retail Assistants: Turning Customer Interactions into Confident Purchases

Lenovo’s AI Retail Assistants help retailers improve conversion and customer experience by embedding intelligent, real-time support directly into in-store and digital shopping journeys.

The Lenovo Retail Floor Assistant provides AI-driven support on the sales floor, helping customers locate products, check availability, navigate promotions, and complete common service tasks. Acting as a digital layer of assistance, the solution helps maintain service quality during peak periods or staff shortages while allowing associates to focus on higher-value customer interactions.

The Lenovo Online Shopping Assistant delivers conversational, multimodal experiences that allow customers to search, compare, and refine products. Using agentic reasoning, the assistant can take real actions, supporting product discovery, comparison, cross-sell, upsell, and cart actions, without forcing customers to navigate multiple pages.

By connecting directly to live product data and inventory systems, the assistants help ensure recommendations are accurate and grounded in real-time availability, helping shoppers make confident decisions before checkout.

Built on Lenovo’s Hybrid AI Advantage™ with NVIDIA, the AI Retail Assistants scale across edge and cloud environments with built-in governance, automation and expert support - transforming shopping from static search into an intelligent, guided buying journey that delivers value from day one.

3. Lenovo Hybrid AI Services: Scaling AI from Pilots to Repeatable Performance

While many retailers can launch AI pilots, scaling them across hundreds or thousands of stores remains a challenge. Lenovo Hybrid AI Services are designed to remove that barrier.

The services help retailers design, deploy, and operate AI consistently across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring governance, reliability, and performance without adding operational risk. AI becomes a repeatable capability embedded into everyday operations, not a one-off initiative.

Proven Retail Impact and a Clear Path from AI Hype to Scale

Lenovo’s deep insights into the needs of retailers is why global beauty brand Shiseido partnered with the company to transform customer experience across eight Asia-Pacific markets. Device reliability improved at scale, reducing friction in day-to-day operations and enabling more seamless customer interactions. Shiseido’s transformation highlights common operational challenges retailers face and how Lenovo delivers practical, flexible solutions that support efficiency and resilience at the frontline.