PHILADELPHIA—April 17, 2025—Invent.ai, a global leader in retail inventory optimization solutions, announces a new benchmark report on the state of AI for retail merchandise planning. Developed in partnership with Retail Systems Research (RSR), “The Case For AI-Enabled Merchandise Planning 2025” provides a comprehensive analysis of merchandise planning challenges, data-driven optimization strategies and recommendations for successful AI adoption in retail. The report found that retailers increasingly recognize AI’s power to transform demand forecasting, buy optimization, inventory management and customer experiences—with 100% of retailers surveyed planning to investigate or invest in AI-enabled solutions over the next 12 months.
“The Case For AI-Enabled Merchandise Planning 2025” is based on a survey of qualified retailers across the apparel, specialty retail, general merchandise and hard goods sectors. With consumer demand trends evolving faster than ever before, only 32% of respondents confidently said they can keep pace with shifting customer behaviors. This response aligns with the retail industry’s growing focus on real-time data analytics to uncover insights, improve agility and make intelligent, data-driven merchandise planning decisions. For today’s retailers, AI is the most significant new tool for predictive analytics, demand planning and merchandise optimization.
Key benchmark report insights include:
- The state of merchandise planning: How retailers rate their current capabilities around merchandising planning, demand forecasting, predictive modeling, stock level optimization and inventory replenishment
- Top business and operational challenges: How shifting consumer demand, inventory management constraints and increased retail competition are affecting merchandising strategies
- Biggest AI-enabled opportunities: How retailers see AI technology transforming merchandise financial planning, assortment planning, pricing strategies and customer engagement
- Hidden possibilities: Why retailers should embrace AI for often-overlooked areas, including dynamic pricing, real-time inventory tracking and AI-driven customer insights
- AI implementation outlook: What retailers see as the biggest barriers to AI adoption, data integration challenges, and how business leaders are driving strategic AI initiatives
- Next steps for success: Practical steps retailers should take to fully leverage AI-powered merchandise planning, sales forecasting and automated retail inventory management
"AI is no longer just a future promise—it's a critical tool for enhancing merchandise planning, inventory optimization and overall retail success. At invent.ai, our retail clients are already harnessing AI-driven forecasting and analytics to successfully deliver products that consumers want to buy—while improving merchandise planning accuracy and revenue growth," said Gurhan Kok, Founder & CEO, invent.ai. "By partnering with RSR on this report, we aim to offer a comprehensive AI guide for retailers to unlock their true potential.”
To download “The Case For AI-Enabled Merchandise Planning 2025,” click here.
Watch the full webinar with RSR Research here to get deeper insights from the study.
About invent.ai
Invent.ai is a pioneering AI-decisioning platform that gives retailers superpowers to make the best planning and operational decisions to grow sales, revenue and margin dollars. Delivering fast, measurable value through its technology solutions, invent.ai brings together retail planning data, predicts outcomes, and optimizes inventory, pricing and merchandising.