Toshiba VP shares insight on the retail tech deployment strategy
In this episode of the CX Innovators Podcast the topic is retail innovation — how retailers and brands can implement a strong strategy to drive innovation within the enterprise, from the initial starting block to the critical ROI analysis. The opportunity with technologies such as agentic AI is significant, but the organizations that get the most from them will be the ones that start with the problem, define the value, prove it and then scale. The podcast features insight from Naresh Kaswadi, VP of software and AI at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. Kaswadi has more than two decades of experience building, scaling, and commercializing enterprise solutions. He was part of the team that conceived and created Alera, which is Toshiba's next-generation commerce platform. He has helped guide its evolution from an initial vision into a cloud native platform serving some of the world's leading retailers. He has been at the forefront. "One of the important lessons that we've learned now working with global retailers for several years is let's start with the business problem, not the technology," Kaswadi said in the podcast. "It's the business problem that we are trying to go solve, whether it's checkout friction, productivity shrink, new services or resiliency. It does come down to what is a business problem and retail is almost always very unforgiving," he said. The podcast also reveals strategies for evaluating technology. "I think we have to start shifting at least our discussions from what a technology can do to essentially what would it impact," said Kaswadi. That requires answering questions such as is the technology getting adopted, is it supportable? Retailers also need to examine the different areas a technology will impact, and how it would get adopted at scale and over time. "As an example, if a retailer wants to build their own checkout, which believe it or not is complex, they really need to think about not only the physical experiences, but the digital experience and how do you bring that together," said Kaswadi.