Shoptalk Europe 2026: fashion retailers back AI-led commerce, but trust remains key

European retailers are quickly embracing AI-assisted commerce, but fashion leaders at Shoptalk Europe 2026 in Barcelona highlighted that trust and human input remain key competitive assets.

The three-day event drew more than 4,500 senior retail and technology leaders to Barcelona last week, with agentic commerce, AI adoption and discovery-led shopping dominating the agenda.

The AI opportunity 

The potential of AI for the fashion and retail industry was a recurring theme throughout the event.

A key example of an AI success story was provided by Zalando Co-CEO David Schröder, who said the company's AI assistant grew from 6 million users in 2025 to 10 million in Q1 2026 alone, with 90% of site content now AI-generated, up from near-zero a year earlier.

Zalando had previously revealed that it had been heavily investing in AI innovations across its marketing, logistics and consumer-facing functions.

The German online retailer, for example, said that it sees "agentic commerce" as an emerging channel that it is projecting to capture up to 15% of all online retail by 2030.

Throughout the year the company is looking to apply AI systems to boost customer "matchmaking" to specific products, having already seen a 13% increase in items added to bags. 

These are far from the only uses for AI in fashion. Two startups recognised at Shoptalk Europe's pitch session pointed to where fashion operators may see near-term value.

Maeve AI tackles returns at the production level, citing evidence that poor fit accounts for 70% of womenswear returns, because fit metrics are generated by over 400 garment technologists with no standardisation.

Reclaim, on the other hand, uses AI to connect customers to circular services including resale, repair or recycling opportunities.

Yet across the wider industry, proving commercial value remains a gap. 

Holden Bale, Chief Strategy Officer of the global marketing and customer experience agency Merkle, said a survey of 100 enterprises worth over a billion dollars found that while 88% have implemented AI in some form, only 6% can draw a direct line to EBITDA value. "That is an enormous gulf," Bale said. 

Panellists converged on a set of principles for closing the adoption-to-impact gap. The central argument: data must be treated as a product with clear ownership, governance and service-level agreements, because better data powers better models, which in turn generate richer data.

Adam Plom, VP of Content at Shoptalk Europe added that the European retail community expects technology to deliver real business impact "while keeping people firmly at the centre" and that colleague empowerment and genuine consumer engagement are "where the industry is planting its flag."

Therefore, while the adoption of AI-assisted commerce is speeding up, trust and human input continue to be critical differentiators for retailers and brands. 

Trust remains key 

Another key takeaway from the event was that, while AI is reshaping how brands and retailers interact with customers, trust and human expertise remain the category's most decisive conversion tools.

Data presented by market research company Ipsos at the event showed European consumer confidence has dropped 2.7 points, the second largest fall since the early days of COVID-19.

Compounding the pressure, only 35% of European consumers trust companies to use their data with AI, compared to 48% globally.

The findings underline the challenge facing brands and retailers as they accelerate their adoption of AI. While the technology offers significant opportunities, maintaining consumer trust will be critical to ensuring its success.

This view was echoed by Nadine Graf, President of Europe, UK&I and Emerging Markets at The Estée Lauder Companies, who stressed that trust must be earned "again and again".

As AI becomes more deeply embedded across the customer journey, brands and retailers will need to strike a careful balance between innovation and reassurance. Those that can harness the technology while preserving consumer confidence are likely to be best placed to succeed in the years ahead.