A majority of retail tasks are set to be replaced by AI by 2035, according to fresh data.
UK retailers are set to pour a third of their budgets into AI-aligned tech next year to help with a spate of rising costs, with 69 per cent expecting to increase investment within two years, according to a new report.
The report, which is from law firm Eversheds Sutherland and research agency Retail Economics, predicts that nearly three-fifths of retail tasks across core functions could be augmented or automated by AI.
The speed of this shift sets the UK among the most advanced global markets, but the report warns that progress is increasingly vulnerable to longstanding operational barriers.
Andrew Todd, partner at Eversheds Sutherland, said that AI will primarily handle routine and data-driven tasks, leaving “more able to focus on strategy, creativity, judgement and customer engagement”.
Todd predicts that new specialist positions will emerge in the sector, while traditional roles “evolve” in the AI-influenced environment.
Next decade will see a “profound shift” in work
A host of analysts and pundits have predicted a rapid shift in working patterns. McKinsey, for example, has outlined “a partnership between people, agents, and robots”.
While evidence that AI boosts individual productivity is murky at best, it is already replacing jobs with repetitive, data-entry tasks.
McKinsey has found the number of adverts for jobs vulnerable to AI’s impact is down 38 per cent compared to three years ago.
Richard Lim, CEO at Retail Economics, said the next decade will “see a profound shift in how work is carried out across [retail].”
“Disruption will happen in waves as retailers test, learn and iterative generative and agentic AI technologies,” he added.
But not everyone is so optimistic about the continued need for staff in the retail sector: Nick Glynne, the boss of Buy It Direct – which owns Appliances Direct – told the BBC that future prospects for hiring people in the UK were “very bleak” for his business.
Glynne said 500 jobs out of about 820 at the company were likely to be shed.
“A mixture of AI on the office side, and technology involving robots and automation and mechanisation in the warehouse, means that the future for employing UK people is very bleak for someone like us,” he said.