Events and Roundtables

Where autonomous retail works through its next transition — together.

NARI convenes operators, technology and equipment providers, payments and finance partners, brands, location networks, investors, researchers, associations, and institutional partners to examine how autonomous retail is changing — and what the sector needs to build next.

NARI roundtables are curated research sessions, not product showcases. They are designed to test working hypotheses against operating experience, identify shared barriers, surface disagreement, and feed directly into the State of Autonomous Retail report.

The first NARI roundtable series will take place in October 2026 and will contribute directly to the inaugural State of Autonomous Retail report. The series will culminate in the NARI Provider / Vendor Conference on December 9, 2026.

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2026 series

State of Autonomous Retail Roundtable Series

The State of Autonomous Retail Roundtable Series consists of four focused online working sessions. Each session is 90 minutes, built around a short pre-read and a defined set of questions. Participation is curated to ensure a productive mix of operators, providers, investors, location partners, researchers, and sector experts.

Thursday, October 1, 2026 · 4:00–5:30 PM EDT / 1:00–2:30 PM PDT · Online

Roundtable 1: Operator Economics — What Makes Autonomous Retail Productive?

What separates a productive autonomous-retail operation from a deployment that fails to generate sustainable returns? This session will identify the operating conditions that support durable economics.

Details

The session will examine how location quality, route density, labor, service, working capital, equipment, technology, product mix, and operator capability combine to determine performance. It will distinguish technologies that improve productivity from upgrades that add cost or complexity without changing the underlying economics.

Participants will compare evidence across operating models and scales, identify the measures that matter most, and discuss what operators, providers, and program designers need to know before recommending modernization investments.

Key questions

  • Which operating measures best explain productive and resilient autonomous-retail locations?
  • Where can AI, telemetry, connected equipment, and workflow redesign produce measurable gains?
  • How do route density, service requirements, product mix, and working capital change the investment case?
  • What evidence should operators require before adopting a modernization offer?

Intended participants

Operators of different sizes and formats; equipment, software, telemetry, payments, finance, and service providers; industry associations; investors; and researchers with relevant operating or market evidence.

Participation is by invitation or approved request.

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Thursday, October 8, 2026 · 4:00–5:30 PM EDT / 1:00–2:30 PM PDT · Online

Roundtable 2: Technology Frontier — From Smart Machines to Autonomous Systems

Connected machines are becoming components of larger operating systems. This session will examine which capabilities are ready for deployment and what must improve before autonomous systems can work reliably at scale.

Details

Operators now face a growing range of equipment, software, payments, telemetry, computer vision, robotics, and AI offers. The important question is how these components work together across fleet operations, locations, inventory, service, customer experience, and business decisions.

The discussion will test provider claims against implementation experience, identify integration and adoption barriers, and consider the shared interfaces, data practices, service models, and operator capabilities needed to move from isolated smart machines toward dependable autonomous-retail systems.

Key questions

  • Which technologies are producing useful operating results now, and which remain experimental?
  • Where do integration, data quality, service, and training failures prevent adoption?
  • What should remain interoperable and operator-controlled as systems become more autonomous?
  • What should providers build next, and what evidence should operators expect before buying?

Intended participants

Operators, equipment manufacturers, software and AI providers, payments and telemetry companies, implementation and service organizations, technical researchers, and industry associations.

Participation is by invitation or approved request.

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Thursday, October 15, 2026 · 4:00–5:30 PM EDT / 1:00–2:30 PM PDT · Online

Roundtable 3: The AI-Mediated Customer — Choice, Agency and the Future of Demand

AI assistants and richer product data may change how customers discover, compare, and select products. This session will examine who gains influence when software increasingly mediates demand.

Details

The session will examine how AI assistants, health and price filters, ingredient data, personal preferences, and automated product discovery may affect customer choice. It will consider what these changes mean for brands, assortments, loyalty, margins, and the role of the physical retail location.

Participants will also examine customer agency: whose goals recommendation systems optimize, what information customers can inspect or control, and how operators and brands can respond without making the buying experience less useful or less trustworthy.

Key questions

  • How will AI-mediated discovery change the value of brands, placement, assortment, and loyalty?
  • Whose objectives will customer-facing AI optimize: the customer, platform, seller, or advertiser?
  • Which product data and interfaces will autonomous-retail systems need to support informed choice?
  • How can operators preserve customer trust, privacy, and agency while using personalization?

Intended participants

Operators, consumer brands and suppliers, AI and commerce-platform providers, customer-experience and product-data specialists, researchers, associations, and consumer-interest experts.

Participation is by invitation or approved request.

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Thursday, October 22, 2026 · 4:00–5:30 PM EDT / 1:00–2:30 PM PDT · Online

Roundtable 4: Future of Location — Autonomous Retail as a Productivity Layer for Real Estate

Autonomous retail can extend services and amenities within workplaces, housing, healthcare, education, travel, and other properties. This session will examine what creates value for both operators and location hosts.

Details

Location quality remains central to autonomous-retail performance, yet access to productive sites is fragmented and difficult to scale. Property owners and operators also evaluate value differently: operators focus on demand and service economics, while hosts consider tenant experience, operational burden, space productivity, and risk.

The discussion will examine how autonomous retail can function as a productivity and service layer for real estate, how locations should be evaluated and supported, and whether shared data, contracting, and location-access infrastructure can improve outcomes for independent operators and hosts.

Key questions

  • Which location characteristics best predict sustained value for operators and hosts?
  • How should property owners evaluate autonomous-retail formats, services, and operating partners?
  • What data, agreements, and service standards could reduce placement and retention failures?
  • Can shared location infrastructure expand access without weakening operator relationships or control?

Intended participants

Operators, property owners and managers, facility and workplace leaders, location networks, equipment and service providers, real-estate technology companies, associations, and researchers.

Participation is by invitation or approved request.

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Public conference

NARI Provider / Vendor Conference

Wednesday, December 9, 2026 · 2:00–5:30 PM EDT / 11:00 AM–2:30 PM PDT · Online

NARI’s online Provider / Vendor Conference will share emerging research findings and translate the October roundtable discussions into practical priorities for providers, operators, and the wider autonomous-retail sector.

Registration coming soon.

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Contribute

Contribute to a NARI Event

NARI welcomes experienced operators, providers, researchers, associations, and institutional partners interested in contributing operating evidence, joining a roundtable, speaking at the conference, or supporting a future event.

Participation is curated according to the purpose and available capacity of each event. Submitting an expression of interest does not guarantee a speaking role or roundtable seat.

Thank you — we received your event interest.

We will review requests according to each event’s purpose and capacity.

Event support and sponsorship do not determine NARI’s research findings, participant conclusions, or provider-review decisions. Material commercial relationships are disclosed.