Retail and Pharmaceutical – Why AI is Already a Must-Have?

In both retail and pharmacies, field sales teams are entering a new era: by 2026, artificial intelligence will no longer be just a promise—it will be a reality. Faced with the looming threat of inflation, every fraction of a market share point must be defended tooth and nail. Sales teams that continue to operate without AI will fall behind, and that gap will become increasingly difficult to close.

The landscape in which retail sales forces operate remains highly dynamic. While hypermarkets and supermarkets still account for 68% of FMCG-FLS sales, these formats are steadily losing ground to curbside pickup, neighborhood stores, and discount formats.

In the food retail sector, independent stores are decisively outpacing chain stores, and each point of sale must be managed with greater precision than ever before. This is especially true given that persistent pressures on purchasing power and the prospect of a new inflationary shock linked to global geopolitical instability are leading consumers to make increasingly nuanced trade-offs—on the one hand, between retailers, and on the other, between products with non-essential items being the first to suffer. For brands, the battle for market share will therefore intensify in 2026. The good news is that the tools to wage this battle intelligently are available and are no longer reserved for large companies with teams of data scientists.

These tools are also available to sales teams at pharmacies and drugstores. Aside from regulatory requirements and traceability obligations, the needs of a pharmaceutical representative are fundamentally the same as those of a retail area manager: both must plan and prepare visits, carry out tasks at the point of sale, and analyze results to optimize their future actions and interventions.