The year 2025 was marked by the boom of advanced technologies guided by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Industry as a whole, specifically the retail sector, observed and tracked consumer changes, such as their way of relating, consuming, and purchasing. The boundary between physical space and the online scenario was overcome, and experimentation with new intelligent tools convinced a large portion of companies, but most remain stuck in isolated pilots with limited returns. This is the major shift for 2026: scaling technology with coherence, management, and profit, transforming market trends into a strategic necessity.
It is precisely this transition from the testing phase to large-scale deployment that represents the main challenge faced by organizations worldwide. Although the value of AI is already being captured, the perception of its impact is still being formed. According to the global survey “The State of AI 2025” conducted by McKinsey, only 39% of companies attribute any level of profit impact to AI. For Danilo Rocha, Sales Director for Brazil at Yalo, an expert in AI integration within conversational channels and intelligent agents focused on the industry, with abundant data and mature tools, by 2026 the market will be shaped by trends that have gained even more momentum, since, as also stated in the report, 80% of respondents claim to define efficiency as an objective of their AI initiatives, in addition to establishing growth and innovation as additional measures of impact.
New Consumer Behavior Overcomes “Crisis of Trust”
According to the report “NIQ’s 2026 Consumer Outlook,” from NielsenIQ, caution and value perception profoundly shaped consumer behavior, which underwent significant transformations over the years. The study states that 95% of consumers define trust as a fundamental element for choosing a brand. “Despite growing consumer caution, brands can earn loyalty by building trust and offering value beyond price,” said Marta Cyhan-Bowles, Director of Communications and Head of Global Marketing COE at NIQ.
Indeed, what could previously be summed up as “impulse buying” is now rethought and evaluated based on the real intention behind a purchase. Another survey by Euromonitor International revealed that trust has become a strategic asset, as 57% of consumers surveyed extensively researched products and services before making a purchase in 2024. The focus shifted from price, the sole and exclusive factor evaluated, to reliability, aligning convenience, experience, and coherence as the consumers' own values.
AI Intelligent Agents
AI intelligent agents will continue to be the main driving force for 2026, evolving from the function of enabling operational gains through data analysis and logistics management, to driving controlled expansion, establishing new governance standards, and maximizing return on investment (ROI). In the McKinsey survey, 62% of respondents said their organizations are at least experimenting with AI agents, and 88% reported regular use of AI in at least one business function.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 40% of enterprise applications will feature AI agents dedicated to specific tasks, compared to less than 5% in 2025, meaning they will be fundamental elements for scaling conversation and service, enabling valuable and personalized interactions with millions of customers simultaneously and immediately. The major opportunity this trend brings is that virtual assistants will not only respond to the questions they receive but will anticipate needs, suggest suitable products, and execute complete transactions on behalf of the consumer. Danilo cautions that “the challenge is to ensure this communication is fluid and as natural as possible.”.
Intelligent Relationship and Conversational Ascent
The Yalo executive anticipates that in 2026, merely knowing the customer's name will no longer be enough for valuable service. “Industry and retail will need to understand the consumer's real context, anticipating desire, offering the ideal product at the perfect moment.” Therefore, one of the main usage trends will be strategic personalization, focused on understanding consumer and business partner behavior in real-time to provide tailored solutions, both in the customer journey and in supply chain optimization. “The goal is to go beyond simple automation, seeking to build an intelligent and solid relationship through conversations with history and anticipation of needs, since inertia or irrelevance will be penalized with loss of attention,” he concludes.
Voice Conversation and the End of Traditional Interfaces
According to the report “How the World Does Digital” (2024) by PYMNTS Intelligence, which examined the digital behaviors of over 67,000 consumers in 11 countries (representing about 50% of global GDP), voice interaction is already an established purchasing medium. The research reveals that 17.9% of the general population uses voice technology to make purchases at least once a week. The trend is led by Gen Z, as 30.4% of young people make voice purchases weekly, using virtual assistants and digital devices, indicating the consolidation of voice conversation as a crucial sales channel.
“Voice conversation advances as a crucial purchasing and support medium, since using voice for search, purchase, and customer service eliminates the need to type or navigate complex menus, accelerating the purchase cycle and improving satisfaction. This reinforces the importance of direct, integrated, and inclusive channels that function as a single storefront, facilitating journey fluidity,” explains Danilo.
Growth of Sales via Integrated and Popular Channels
The advancement of chat commerce, driven by AI, has redefined B2B relationships, connecting major brands to millions of small and medium-sized retailers via widely used channels such as WhatsApp. By automating the entire purchasing journey—from order placement to offer personalization and relationship management—Artificial Intelligence ensures that small entrepreneurs can, for example, replenish their stock quickly and intuitively, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Gartner projects that by next year, four out of every ten digital interactions will occur via voice or natural language, making communication with machines more fluid than navigating menus or clicks. This trend is reflected in channels like WhatsApp, which is growing in emerging countries and redefining the relationship between major brands and micro-retailers. For Danilo, this is the retail sector's next battleground: “The customer doesn't just want to be served quickly. They want to be understood. Personalization only has conversion potential when it reflects context and timing.”
“The vision of AI's impact within organizations needs to go further so that the implementation challenge is overcome with strategy and intelligence. More than treating technology as an engine of transformation, redesigning workflows, and accelerating innovation, it is urgent to overcome old interruption-based advertising. The business that will be ahead is the one that adapts to the new consumer behavior, offering a product or service that not even they knew they needed so much at that exact moment,” concludes Danilo Rocha, Sales Director for Brazil at Yalo, an intelligent sales platform powered by agents.
