ANRF Big Show 2026, the world's largest retail fair, opened its doors this week with a significant change in tone. Under the topic The Next Now, the event signaled that the phase of fascination with Artificial Intelligence is over. Technology is now treated as “basic infrastructure” — like electricity or the internet —, shifting the central debate to the reorganization of brands into ecosystems and the new strategic role of physical stores.
At the official opening, Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, highlighted the current convergence between economic pressure and technological acceleration. For the executive, growth in modern retail is no longer linked only to massive scale, but to precision: the ability to understand specific niches and deliver real value to a fragmented consumer.
The “Agent Commerce” Phenomenon
One of the most debated terms in the halls of the Javits Center is the agent commerce. The trend points to a near future where AI agents will actively mediate the purchasing journey, making recommendation and comparison decisions based on the user's context.
This digital automation puts pressure on physical retail to reinvent itself. If transaction and choice logic migrates to AI, what is left for the store? The answer is emotion.
"For physical retail, this shifts the focus from simple conversion to more meaningful and memorable experiences. If the decision increasingly takes place in the digital environment or mediated by intelligent agents, the physical space needs to deliver what no AI can replace: emotional connection, identity and experience", he analyzes Isabela Baracat, founder of Point.to Architecture, present at the event.
Communities vs. Mass
Validation of this model came in the keynote of Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics. The executive presented a case based on communities engaged by passion (sports) and proprietary data, decreeing that relevance will no longer come from mass communication, but from the depth of the relationship.
In this context of an integrated ecosystem (where product, logistics, content and technology interact), the physical store evolves from a “transactional” place to a platform of belonging.
"When retail starts to operate in ecosystem logic, the environment is no longer just functional. It becomes a strategic relationship platform. Architecture, in this scenario, becomes a strategic language capable of translating values", adds Baracat.
The 2026 Verdict
The final message from the first days of NRF 2026 is clear: global scale cannot mean standardization. Long-lasting brands will be those that maintain coherence of purpose, but know how to use physical space to make the brand tangible, sensorial and human — a refuge of connection in a world mediated by algorithms.
