About this episode
Carl Boutet, a retail technology expert and McGill University faculty lecturer, discusses how the pandemic accelerated digital transformation in retail, using Best Buy’s rapid adoption of click-and-collect as an example. He argues that while “AI is now a hygiene factor in business,” retailers must differentiate through empathy and human connection rather than technology alone. The conversation explores uneven global adoption of retail technologies — Asian markets lead in social commerce and live shopping — and advises retailers to balance operational efficiency through AI with customer-centric engagement, emphasizing curiosity when exploring emerging-market and contextual-commerce opportunities.
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