Fireside Chat: Rethinking Retail HR Where Cost Management & AI Are Crucial For Survival & Market Share

23 Apr 2026
Supernova Stage
Leadership, Cybersecurity & Economy

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to ask some questions of their own:

  • How can the retailers make their businesses a destination employer in 2026?   

  • How can retail leaders rethink recruitment to truly attract, excite and secure the best talent?  

  • Which new factors will ensure retail colleagues will want to remain within their organisations that didn’t exist two years ago? 

  • What new strategies and technologies can retailers use to reduce the costs of human resources?  

  • How can retailers ensure their workforce embraces AI’s opportunities whilst overcoming their fears that it will replace them?    

  • How can retailers reassure their workforce in an environment of increased retail crime, abuse and uncertainty? 

  • Which new skills are retailers looking for in 2026 and how will this likely develop over the next three years? 

  • What does retail productivity and efficiency look like today and how can it be best achieved?

  • How should retailers evolve their HR strategies for Generation Alpha? 

  • What can retailers do to ensure their workforce remains agile going forward?

  • How will retail cultures need to evolve to manage costs and AI effectively in the short term?   

Host
Kate Hardcastle MBE
Kate Hardcastle MBE, The Customer Whisperer & Broadcaster - Hardcastle Collective