From brand loyalty’s rebirth to the dynamic trio of retrieval, scale, and memory, Algolia executives are eyeing disruption for retail and AI in the next 12 months

Algolia, the AI Search and Retrieval platform trusted by more than 18,000 businesses and millions of developers worldwide, today released six predictions for 2026, based on aggregated insights from Algolia’s executive team, activity across its platform, and hundreds of conversations with customers, partners, investors, and peers within the AI market. The biggest themes Algolia’s predictions reveal include the rise of retrieval, scale, and memory as the foundation for agentic AI; the reinvention of brand loyalty through generative discovery; and the growing influence of AI agents across both customer and enterprise experiences. These bold bets are particularly critical coming out of a quarter where retail sales were lackluster, and 61% of B2C tech leaders are leveraging agentic AI in 2026 to regain their footing, citing ROI as a top motivator.

Piyush Patel, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Algolia, said:

“In 2025, agentic AI experiences did not live up to the hype. We’re in for another ChatGPT moment in 2026, a renaissance that pushes the boundaries for what technology can do. Three things will usher in the next phase of innovation, and that is memory, retrieval, and scale; without these, enterprises will never be able to fully realize the benefits of AI agents.”

The Algolia team’s six predictions for 2026 are as follows:

1. Retrieval, scale, and memory will uplevel agentic experiences: In 2026, retrieval, scale, and memory are becoming critical differentiators for enterprise AI as organizations move beyond prototypes toward scalable, production-ready agents. If tech companies cannot build AI agents with strong memory and retrieval capabilities that can scale for enterprise-grade use cases, they can’t deliver consistent value and measurable ROI for their customers. Businesses seeking AI solutions that are true product-market fits should focus on those that can efficiently find, contextualize, and recall important information while promising five-nines availability.
   
   
   
   
2. LLM leaders will continue to pour capital into browsers: LLM leaders will continue investing heavily in proprietary browsers as they compete to own the consumer’s entry point to the internet and tightly integrate AI into everyday discovery and commerce. While these AI-driven environments present new opportunities, today’s experience remains early-stage, with challenges around speed, usability, and security slowing mainstream adoption. The leaders will be those who take daring approaches to overcome these challenges.
   
   
   
   
3. Wise business leaders will design a new kind of hybrid team: This year, “hybrid” no longer means a blend of remote and in-office workers; it means combining the work of human workers and AI workers to improve operational efficiency and boost employee productivity. This talent strategy applies across go-to-market, product, and engineering teams. Leaders need to find where AI can drive efficiency and productivity gains. In parallel, it’s also time they hire a new wave of junior AI engineers, who not only bring fresh mindsets but also will challenge existing processes.
   
   
   
   
4. Brand loyalty will be reborn in the GEO era: Generative search traffic to U.S. retail sites surged in 2025, marking a huge shift in how consumers discover and choose brands, and it’s only the beginning. This isn’t the end of brand loyalty; it’s a new era of unmatched discovery, both in how consumers find their next favorite brand and how retailers discover new customers. Retailers that invest early in generative and agentic AI capabilities, such as generative engine optimization and shopping agents, will take advantage of brand loyalty’s rebrand and sustain long-term growth.
   
   
   
   
5. Retailers will begin treating AI as a new type of customer: AI agents now play a major role in determining which retailers and products consumers stumble upon in their online shopping journeys, which means that AI agents now act as a new class of customer. Retailers will need to optimize for both human and AI audiences by structuring their data to be digestible to AI agents, implementing low-latency APIs, and ensuring product availability, pricing, and inventory data stay up to date on their websites. Like human customers, AI agents will pick the retailers who truly understand their needs.
   
   
   
   
6. Agent-to-agent interactions will redefine the B2B customer experience: This year, a large portion of B2B customer experiences will be powered by agent-to-agent interactions that operate behind the scenes to complete tasks without a human ever prompting them. Rather than responding to individual queries, AI agents will coordinate, configure, and execute complex workflows, such as technical setup, procurement, or inventory optimization, based on shared context and historical knowledge. Organizations that adopt agent-to-agent models will reduce friction, accelerate outcomes, and deliver more consistent, personalized experiences for their customers.

Nate Barad, VP of Product Marketing, said:

“With 2026 now in full swing, I believe retailers should feel very optimistic about how AI can supercharge their businesses on both the front and back end. The glass-half-full retailer knows that this new era of rampant generative AI-driven web traffic marks the start of unmatched discovery, not the death of customer loyalty, and they’re taking innovative steps to win new business from external GenAI tools and capture the new-favorite-brand status. Similarly, AI agents will be working behind the scenes to support retailers’ hardworking teams, whether that’s handling customer service engagements or helping a merchandiser automatically plan seasonal themes and fix underperforming search queries. Retail leaders who embrace these changes will drive success for years to come.”

To learn more about these bold predictions and find out how your business can adapt to them this year, sign up for a demo with the Algolia team or visit us at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show in NYC at booth #6051.

About Algolia

Algolia is the leading AI Search and Retrieval platform, powering 1.75 trillion searches a year for more than 18,000 businesses. With a unified keyword and vector search and retrieval engine, Algolia delivers the world’s fastest and most scalable search and discovery technology. Companies rely on Algolia to build agentic, generative, and search experiences through tools like Agent Studio. With over a decade of innovation, Algolia is redefining retrieval-powered applications and the future of AI discovery.

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