Lenovo Brings Real-Time Store Visibility and AI-Driven Support to Retail—Delivering Value on Day One
Smart Store Services, AI-native Retail Assistants, and Hybrid AI Services help retailers reduce downtime, empower frontline teams, and scale AI across physical and digital stores.
Retailers lose revenue every time an online store goes down, a system fails, or frontline employees lack the tools to act in the moment. Meanwhile, generative AI platforms and AI agents are creating new opportunities to increase online retail experiences and conversion rates. Yet while AI has the potential to help retailers drive better margins and competitive advantage, many still find it challenging to translate experimentation into consistent, day-to-day operational and revenue improvements.
Today at NRF: Retail’s Big Show, Lenovo announced their latest AI-powered solutions - Smart Store Services and AI Retail Assistants - designed to deliver immediate, measurable value for retailers. Supported by Lenovo Hybrid AI Services, the solutions embed AI directly into daily retail operations, helping retailers prevent disruptions before revenue is lost, support associates in real time, and scale AI into repeatable performance across physical and digital stores.
“Retail leaders don’t invest in AI for experimentation, they invest to keep stores running, protect revenue, and serve customers better,” said Patricia Wilkey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, International Sales, Solutions & Services Group, Lenovo. “These solutions are designed to deliver value immediately by embedding AI into everyday retail operations and scaling it reliably across the enterprise.”
1. Smart Store Services: AI-led Capabilities for Operational Resilience, Store Uptime and Customer Experience
Store downtime, caused by POS failures, payment disruptions, or connectivity issues, directly impacts revenue and customer trust. Lenovo’s Smart Store Services are designed to prevent those losses by keeping stores operational and transactions flowing.
The AI-driven solution helps detect, predict, and resolve issues before customers or employees are affected, reducing downtime by up to50% and resolving issues60% faster according to internal Lenovo data.
On day one, retailers gain:
- Real-time visibility into store health across IT and operational systems
- Automated incident prioritization based on business impact
- A single command center connecting IT, operations, and store support teams
Many issues are resolved automatically or remotely, reducing dependence on costly and time-consuming on-site support. Retailers see 30–40% lower IT support costs and reduced operational friction across large store networks.
Smart Store Services also empower frontline employees rather than adding complexity. Delivered through a simple, unified experience, one device, one app, the solution gives associates guided self-service tools to resolve common issues confidently. Frontline teams spend less time troubleshooting technology and more time serving customers, while manager involvement in issue resolution drops by more than half.
By embedding AI directly into daily store operations, where it continuously learns from real incidents and automates resolution, Smart Store Services move AI from isolated pilots to repeatable, scalable value across every store.
2. AI Retail Assistants: Turning Customer Interactions into Confident Purchases
Lenovo’s AI Retail Assistants help retailers improve conversion and customer experience by embedding intelligent, real-time support directly into in-store and digital shopping journeys.
The LenovoRetail Floor Assistant provides AI-driven support on the sales floor, helping customers locate products, check availability, navigate promotions, and complete common service tasks. Acting as a digital layer of assistance, the solution helps maintain service quality during peak periods or staff shortages while allowing associates to focus on higher-value customer interactions.
The LenovoOnline Shopping Assistant delivers conversational, multimodal experiences that allow customers to search, compare, and refine products. Using agentic reasoning, the assistant can take real actions, supporting product discovery, comparison, cross-sell, upsell, and cart actions, without forcing customers to navigate multiple pages.
By connecting directly to live product data and inventory systems, the assistants help ensure recommendations are accurate and grounded in real-time availability, helping shoppers make confident decisions before checkout.
Built on Lenovo’s Hybrid AI Advantage™ with NVIDIA, the AI Retail Assistants scale across edge and cloud environments with built-in governance, automation and expert support - transforming shopping from static search into an intelligent, guided buying journey that delivers value from day one.
3. Lenovo Hybrid AI Services: Scaling AI from Pilots to Repeatable Performance
While many retailers can launch AI pilots, scaling them across hundreds or thousands of stores remains a challenge. Lenovo Hybrid AI Services are designed to remove that barrier.
The services help retailers design, deploy, and operate AI consistently across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring governance, reliability, and performance without adding operational risk. AI becomes a repeatable capability embedded into everyday operations, not a one-off initiative.
Proven Retail Impact and a Clear Path from AI Hype to Scale
Lenovo’s deep insights into the needs of retailers is why global beauty brand Shiseido partnered with the company to transform customer experience across eight Asia-Pacific markets. Device reliability improved at scale, reducing friction in day-to-day operations and enabling more seamless customer interactions. Shiseido’s transformation highlights common operational challenges retailers face and how Lenovo delivers practical, flexible solutions that support efficiency and resilience at the frontline.
Explore how Lenovo can help modernize retail operations and customer engagement with AI-powered solutions.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$69 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo’s continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere.
Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.
LENOVO is a trademark of Lenovo. NVIDIA is a trademark of NVIDIA Corporation, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2026 Lenovo Group Limited. All rights reserved.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112021010/en/
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Australian Defence Force Secures Satellite Communications on SES IS-2212.1.2026 22:30:00 CET | Press release
New agreement for uninterrupted UHF connectivity for Australian Defence Force through 2033, With Options Extending to 2041 Satellite communications solutions provider SES will provide secure uninterrupted satellite communications to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for a minimum of 16 years thanks to a new extended agreement. The service will be provided via the SES Intelsat 22 satellite and an ultra-high frequency (UHF) military communications payload. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112137182/en/ Assistant Secretary Space Systems Branch, Michael Hunt, formalizes contract negotiations for the through-life support of the IS-22 satellite with Rory Welch, senior vice-president of service delivery at SES Space and Defense. Photos: Corporal Annika Smit Under the renewed arrangement, SES will reposition the IS-22 satellite to a new orbital slot specified by the ADF, continuing a mission that has been the corne
NetApp Appoints Paul Fipps to the Board of Directors12.1.2026 22:05:00 CET | Press release
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced that Paul Fipps, President of Global Customer Operations at ServiceNow, has joined its Board of Directors. The board now has ten directors, nine of whom are independent, and 50% of whom have been appointed within the last five years. Fipps brings more than 20 years of experience driving technology-enabled growth and customer transformation. At ServiceNow, he currently leads global sales, customer success, partner ecosystems, and field operations. He previously served as EVP of Worldwide Sales at ServiceNow and as President of Under Armour Connected Fitness and Chief Experience Officer at Under Armour, overseeing global direct-to-consumer, connected fitness, and digital experiences. He also previously served on the advisory board of Quantum Metric. Fipps holds a B.S. in Information Systems, an MBA from the University of Baltimore, and is a graduate of The Wharton School’s Advanced Management Program. “P
FDA Accepts New Drug Application for Pimicotinib for the Treatment of Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor12.1.2026 20:00:00 CET | Press release
Not intended for Canada-, UK- or US-based media Merck, a leading science and technology company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the company’s new drug application (NDA) for pimicotinib as a systemic treatment for patients with tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT). The application is based on the primary results and longer-term follow-up of the global Phase 3 MANEUVER study, which demonstrated deep and durable tumor responses and meaningful improvements in clinical outcomes with pimicotinib. “With pimicotinib, we have an opportunity to significantly advance care for people living with TGCT, a painful and debilitating disease that has few effective and well-tolerated treatment options beyond surgery,” said David Weinreich, Global Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer for the Healthcare business of Merck. “Based on clinical trial results showing not only a reduction in tumor burden, but also the ability to help alleviate symptoms like pain an
Fabentech receives Marketing Authorization for Ricimed®, an antidote against ricin poisoning12.1.2026 19:32:00 CET | Press release
First Marketing Authorization granted in France for the treatment of ricin poisoning, one of the most toxic natural substances in the world and a recognized priority biological threat. Ricimed® addresses a previously unmet medical need in the management of severe and potentially fatal ricin intoxications.Supported by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs (the Directorate General of Armaments and the French Military Health Service), the development of Ricimed® illustrates Fabentech’s transition to a new scale and, with recent support from the European HERA Invest program, reinforces its positioning as a reference player in medical countermeasures against biological threats, serving both civilian and military markets. Fabentech, a French biopharmaceutical company specializing in medical countermeasures against biological threats, today announces that it has been granted Marketing Authorization for Ricimed®, a treatment for ricin poisoning. This press release featur
Traxys Group and the Shareholders of Comax2 AB - the holding company of Carbomax AB - sign Share Purchase Agreement to sell 100% interests to Traxys Group12.1.2026 19:20:00 CET | Press release
Traxys S.à.r.l., Investment Aktiebolaget Spiltan and other major shareholders of Comax 2 AB – the holding company of Carbomax AB –are pleased to announce that they have signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) to sell 100% interests to Traxys Group. Carbomax AB is a leading Swedish trading house and industrial operator specializing in ferroalloys, carbon products and briquettes. The transaction aims to strengthen Traxys’ presence in the Scandinavian market and support the region’s transition toward sustainable steel production. Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the first quarter 2026 following clearance by Swedish authorities, including foreign direct investment and antitrust approvals. Carbomax serves regional steel plants and most of foundries across the Nordics. With its strategic location near Västerås harbor and integrated processing capabilities Carbomax is well-positioned to capitalize on growing demand for green steel and sustainable raw materials. Mark Kristoff
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom