Stop Saying AI: How to Stand Out Among 500 Vendors, with Vicki Cantrell

If AI decides who gets found, what happens to the independent store with the best people in town?New research Lightspeed commissioned from Vaer AI found that AI recommends big retailers over local businesses 9 out of 10 times. More than half of shoppers have already used AI to help decide what to buy. For a lot of people, the first store they visit is now a chat window, and it shows the big names first.Dax Dasilva founded Lightspeed in Montreal in 2005 to help independent businesses compete with bigger ones. Today it powers retail and hospitality businesses in more than 100 countries. He also founded Age of Union, a nonprofit alliance protecting threatened ecosystems around the world, and wrote Age of Union and Echoes from Eden.Dax explains why AI shopping assistants lean toward national chains, and why the gap gets wider the more specific a shopper's search gets. His advice for shoppers is simple: add "independent," "local" or "locally owned" to the prompt. "Remember that your prompt matters."For store owners, he's just as practical. Twenty years ago, a great location, great products and great people were enough. Today an owner has to be an expert in social media, merchandising, loyalty, omnichannel and now AI search, often after getting into the business "because you love bikes." His advice: pick one channel where you can show your expertise, whether that's content, reviews, a blog or an online showroom, and own it. Then let AI agents take on the back-office work, "like co-managers for you in your business," so owners can get back to curation, customers and community.Looking ahead to NRF's Big Show, Dax wants the industry talking about discoverability. "Small business is the engine of the economy. They can't be cut out by AI and the model makers."The one thing you can do: Next time you ask AI where to shop, ask "Where can I buy this from an independent business near me?" Prompt local.In this episode:What Lightspeed does, and why Dax built it for independent retailersFrom the Apple Store to the age of AI: 20 years of retail changeWhy agentic AI matters most for small retailersThe research: AI picks national chains 9 out of 10 timesWhy the gap widens the closer a shopper gets to buyingContent, reviews and social: what stores can controlFrom SEO to AEO: getting found by AI instead of search enginesOne thing a small retailer can do this weekFive years out: third spaces and the store as a gathering placeAge of Union, Echoes from Eden and the ROI on natureThe conversation the industry should be having at NRFPrompt Local research: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/ai-retail-guide-teaser/Find Dax: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daxdasilva/lightspeedhq.com Age of Union: https://ageofunion.com/Find Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/Disclosure: This episode is part of a paid partnership with Lightspeed.

Every January, hundreds of solution providers walk into the Javits Center to sell to retailers. Most don't understand how a retailer actually buys. Most retailers don't understand how a vendor has to sell.Vicki Cantrell has sat in almost every seat in this industry. She was CIO at Gucci Group and Giorgio Armani, the person tech vendors had to sell to. She was COO at Tory Burch through 300% global growth, then at Shop.org and the NRF, where the Big Show grew 50% on her watch. Then she crossed the table to Aptos, selling to retailers. Ron and Vicki met in 2010 at Tory Burch. He was a district manager and she was an executive, and they've stayed friends ever since.Vicki's diagnosis is that the old models are broken. Technology moves faster than ever, and decision-making hasn't kept up. RFPs are now written by AI on both sides, so every vendor looks like they do everything. In her words, the RFP has always been "a CYA document."Her biggest takeaway from a recent session with retailers and vendors is blunt: take the word AI out of everything. Everything has AI now. A retailer can read a vendor's whole homepage and still not know what the vendor does. Talk about the business problem you solve, not the technology behind it. The word "needs to go away way faster than the word omnichannel did."There is good news too. Both sides now share the same challenge, because neither knows how to navigate what's coming. That is pulling retailers and vendors into the same room and getting them to help each other. "When you put two people in a room who share the same challenges, they immediately feel safe, seen, heard."The episode closes on the VIP Awards. Vicki explains why January 2026 felt different, and why everyone who walks in for the first time calls the night a reunion. She also covers what's new for 2027: expanded categories that include the store, and nominations built around real partnerships and the results they produced.Nominations close Friday, October 16. The VIP Awards gala is Friday, January 8, 2027, at Gotham Hall in New York City, the Friday before NRF's Big Show.In this episode:What vendors never understand about a retail executive's day, and what retailers miss about vendorsWhy buying for the store means winning over 80% of the workforce"Who should I talk to?" Why the title matters less than who can help you navigateWhy today's buying models, from RFPs to redlines, no longer workHow retailers can sort through 500 vendorsTake the word AI out of everythingHow AI is making the industry more humanFear, acceptance and AI at every level of the workforceInside the VIP Awards: the reunion, the long game, and what's new for 2027How to submit a last-minute nominationNominate: https://vendorsinpartnership.com/pages/nomination-hubFind Vicki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickicantrell/Find Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/Disclosure: Ron is a nominee in the 2027 VIP Awards.

Blake Devillier thought he'd work at the Gap for six weeks. He needed a summer job. He stayed twenty-eight years.What changed everything was one sentence from an acting district manager named Julia: if you were interested in building a career in leadership, I think that could happen. That conversation put Blake on a path through Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy — finishing as Territory Vice President for the East and Canada — then out of fashion entirely, to Senior Vice President of Field Operations at Taco Bell, and then President of Carl's Jr. USA.Ron opens by asking Blake a number he can't give: how many people have worked for you? Blake's answer — hundreds of thousands — sets up the real subject of this episode. Retail is the largest private sector employer in the country. It's where a huge number of Americans learn how to work. And the people running field teams quietly set the ceiling on all of it.Blake has spent the last seven months building a keynote around a single claim: connection is a performance multiplier. Not a value on a break room poster — something measurable, made of two nameable parts, and the reason two teams with the same product and the same payroll get completely different results.Then, unprompted, Blake offers the thing he most wants retailers to hear — that pride is born in the pursuit of details that seem unattainable.In this episode:What's the same about a frontline whether you're selling denim or tacosWhy quick service creates experts faster than retail does — and what retail should stealThe two components of genuine connection: psychological safety and interpersonal alignmentWhy the best store leaders are great filters — the critical few, not the important manyThe head of stores as part strategist, part people leader, part bodyguardWhy hiring across the retail/QSR wall works in both directionsWhere pride actually comes from, and why it fuels the businessFind Blake: LinkedIn and blakedevillier.com · [email protected] referenced in this episode:blakedevillier.comronthurston.com

Somewhere between 50 and 70% of people who walk into a store leave without buying anything. Eighty percent of them walked in with an AI-generated answer already in their pocket.Juan Molina built his career on the moment before that — 3D product visualization at Cylindo and Chaos, making a product look convincing on a screen. Now, at Rallyware, he works the moment after: the ten seconds when a real person, standing in front of a customer, either closes the sale or doesn't.Twenty years after "360-degree view of the customer" became a boardroom phrase, the store is still a black box. Juan calls the gap the in-aisle decision moment — Google's Zero Moment of Truth, for the sales floor.The number that should worry every retail leader: under 15% of associates engage with voluntary training, and most of what lands is forgotten within days. Not laziness — the day in the life of a frontline associate isn't built for homework. Juan's CEO put it simply: "Every time I walk into a retail store, we're nowhere to be found."From there: the real math behind "false" turnover, why associates avoid products they don't understand, and Juan's case for treating the device in an associate's hand as a revenue driver, not a cost center. It closes on something Juan didn't plan to say — that his own career has quietly made him an acolyte of the frontline associate's moment of decision.In this episode:Why 80% of shoppers now walk in more informed than the associate helping themThe in-aisle decision moment, and why the store is still a black boxThe real reason training doesn't stickWhat actually separates an associate who converts from one who doesn'tTurning device spend into revenue per deviceWho Rallyware is built for, and who it's notOne mindset shift for NRF and the holiday seasonFind Juan on LinkedIn Learn more about Rallyware hereFind Ron: ronthurston.com

AI can write an email that sounds exactly like you. It can personalize at a scale no sales team ever could. And that is precisely why the inbox stopped working. When every message sounds human, none of them get read.Eric Aubertin, founder and CEO of truelynk (https://truelynk.com), has built his sixth company on the one thing buyers still trust: a warm introduction from someone they know.Eric's story doesn't start in software. It starts on the ice, drafted by the Montreal Canadiens and playing for Canada. Since then he has started, built and sold company after company. truelynk is number six, and it rests on a simple observation: the vouch, the "you need to talk to this person," is the most valuable and most wasted asset in business.Ron is an advisor to truelynk, disclosed up front in the episode.IN THIS EPISODEWhy nobody buys retail technology off a demoThe blind spot in LinkedIn: everybody is connected, nobody knows who actually knows whoWhat AI did to cold outreach, and why the human became the filterRelationship ratings, and sorting 30,000 connections in minutes instead of monthsQuality introductions versus matchmaking, and how advisors get paidWho the platform is for on both sides, and who should not botherWhy 85% of decisions start with a referral, and what it would take to make that a channelThe lesson Eric believes more deeply now than when he started: this is an engagement problemLINKStruelynk — https://truelynk.comBecome a truelynk advisor — https://truelynk.com/advisorEric Aubertin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaubertin/Ron Thurston on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/Ron Thurston — https://ronthurston.comThe newsletter — https://ron-thurston-newsletter.netlify.app/If this conversation changed how you think about how you sell, who you know, or who vouches for you, pass it on to someone who needs to hear it.Subscribe and follow.Thank you!Ron

S3E4 — Balance Is Bullsh*t: Cut Your Life From 25 Things to 5 with Loretta SoffeRetail in America · Season 3: The Human Edge of SellingShe pulled into her driveway with her hands still on the wheel and couldn't get out of the car. Inside the house: three kids, a husband who had paused his legal career for what they thought would be one year and became twelve. Outside: the title, the corner office, the private plane, the front row at fashion week. Everything in the picture was perfect, and she was completely, quietly exhausted.Loretta Soffe spent 25 years climbing Nordstrom — sales floor to Executive Vice President of a $2 billion division — until the day she was fired at the peak. Asked recently whether she'd have quit if they hadn't fired her, she stopped cold: probably not. That's what golden handcuffs do.What she figured out afterward became a book, a framework, and this conversation.The Edge: The 25-to-5 exercise. Write down 25 things sitting on your calendar, your to-do list, your phone, your brain. Now force it down to five. Loretta runs this with rooms of women aged 20 to 65, and what falls off is never what people expect — the cupcakes for the soccer team, the recurring meeting that recurs for no reason. What's already gone is fitness. Date nights. The things that mattered. The audit is where the aha lives, and it's the one step of her Self Architect Method she goes deep on here.The Truth: Trying to do all things, all the time, at once gives you exactly two outcomes — burnout or mediocrity. The alternative isn't balance. It's going 150% in when it counts, with the confidence that the rest of your life is built to hold. And that requires letting go of a standard of success you never chose in the first place.Also in this episode: why what got you here is exactly what stops you from seeing you're drowning. Why your network is your net worth, and why mentorship runs both directions. And the hardest chapter in her book — "A Boss, a Bitch, or a Bold Brave Leader" — on the reorg where the men were praised as efficient and direct for the same decisions that got her called difficult, overanalyzing, and slow."Fair is something you pay on the bus."🎧 Subscribe to Retail in America at ronthurston.com📚 Books Retail Pride — amazon.com/dp/1544509456 Human Pride — geni.us/humanpride Balance Is Bullshit by Loretta Soffe — amazon.com/dp/B0FMNMNNXZ🔗 Find Loretta Web: lorettasoffe.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/loretta-soffe/ Instagram: @loretta_soffe All links: linktr.ee/lorettasoffeFollow Ron linkedin.com/in/ron-thurston/ Instagram: @retailpride ronthurston.com

The Human Edge, Amplified — with Tulsi Keshkamat (Microsoft Teams for Frontline)What if the technology to transform your frontline already exists — and you're already paying for it?In this episode of RETAIL IN AMERICA, sponsored by Microsoft, Ron Thurston sits down with Tulsi Keshkamat to unpack one of retail's biggest blind spots: the gap between what frontline technology can do and what most retailers realize they already have. Tulsi shares why Microsoft Teams is far more than a meetings-and-email tool for corporate, and how it's quietly becoming the operating system for the people who actually run the store floor.The conversation moves from the practical to the profound — from cutting a store walkthrough's documentation time in half with voice-based checklists, to giving every frontline worker a "digital identity," to the bigger truth underneath it all: as AI and agentic commerce reshape retail, the human connection on the floor becomes more valuable, not less. Tulsi's design philosophy says it best — use technology for the mechanics, but leave the meaning untouched, and create more space for it.For any retail leader weighing how to bring AI and digital tools to their frontline without losing the human core of the work, this is a roadmap — and a reminder of why the people closest to the customer matter more than ever.In this episode:Why there's a massive "awareness gap" around frontline technology — and why many retailers already own the licenseHow frontline workers deliver some of the fastest, clearest ROI of any tech investmentThe difference between deploying for big-box operations (inventory, labor) vs. luxury (the associate-customer relationship)How voice is removing the "heads-down" drudgery of store walkthroughs and checklistsWhy Teams acts as a platform that reduces the number of apps a frontline worker juggles — not adds to themThe link between giving managers time back and frontline retention, career conversations, and pride in the workWhere AI fits: handling the mechanics so humans can focus on judgment, connection, and meaningHow to start: pick one or two use cases, pilot in a couple of stores, and scale from thereResources mentioned:Microsoft Frontline sessions: aka.ms/frontlineFridaysContact the Teams Frontline team: [email protected] episode is sponsored by Microsoft.🎧 Listen now and subscribe to Retail in America on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.This episode features a sponsored conversation with Microsoft. Product capabilities and outcomes may vary by organization, and not all results or claims discussed are guaranteed. Any references to features in preview or development are subject to change

The entire retail sales-training industry is built on scripts and closing techniques. Daria Tcherkachina threw both out — and built a career proving they were never the point.In this episode, Daria and Ron make the case that customer service is the most underrated revenue strategy in retail, and that the human standing on your floor is the asset most businesses are quietly wasting.Daria's 22 years span door-to-door sales, luxury floors at Harry Rosen, a bespoke suiting studio whose clients included Drake, and building Lighthouse Immersive's retail operation across 27 markets from scratch. She now runs PUBLC SERVICE.What you'll hear:Why curiosity — not closing — is the glue holding her five-element framework together (Purpose, Presence, Connection, Curiosity, Care)Why "presence" is measurable, not a feeling: the sum of every operational decision made before the customer walks inThe closed loop that quietly kills sales: businesses underinvest in training, staff feel undervalued, customers feel nothing, numbers suffer — each side waiting for the other to move firstHer one Monday-morning shift for any leader: give your team individual purpose before every shift. "It costs nothing. It takes 60 seconds."Find Daria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariatcherkachina/

The more we shop with algorithms and let AI agents shape our decisions, the more valuable one thing becomes: a human who actually knows how to sell. That is the thesis of Season 3 — and there is no better person to open the conversation than Ben Rodier.Ben is the CEO and co-founder of FrontlineIQ.ai and a repeat entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience building sales technology, including his earlier company, Salesfloor. While many AI sales tools were designed for office-based B2B reps working from call transcripts, emails, and CRM data, FrontlineIQ was built for a different reality: B2C and field sellers who win or lose the customer in person, in real time.In this conversation, Ron and Ben explore:What the “coaching crisis” actually looks like on a Tuesday afternoon on a real sales floor.Why the problem turned out to be far bigger than the category FrontlineIQ started in.The honest version of where this technology works, where it does not, and what the skeptics get right.What AI is revealing from real sales conversations about how top performers open differently than everyone else.Whether the market is truly ready to pay a premium for human selling — or whether that idea is still wishful thinking.This is a tactical, candid, and occasionally pointed conversation about the most human work left in business.Disclosure: Ron recently joined FrontlineIQ as an advisor, which he discloses in the episode.

EPISODE 21 — How to Stand Out as a Candidate When Everyone Uses AISpecial Series: The Human Edge in the Job Market (Part 4 of 6)In 2024, Insight Global surveyed over a thousand U.S. hiring managers and found that 88% can tell when a candidate is using AI in their application. One in five recruiters say they would reject a fully AI-generated resume or cover letter outright. And industry estimates suggest that somewhere between 40 and 80% of applicants in 2026 are leaning on AI to draft their resumes, cover letters, and interview answers.The result: the rules of standing out have inverted. The thing that’s supposed to give you an edge — the AI polish, the optimization, the perfectly worded cover letter — is the same thing that’s tagging you as forgettable. Polish is the new generic.In Part 4 of The Human Edge in the Job Market, Ron Thurston walks through three specific moments in a job search where humanity beats polish — and names the edge that lives inside each one. Because these are advantages you already have, built into how you’ve been working your whole career.Place One: The Application — the edge is Specificity. The cover letter’s job is no longer to summarize a resume. It’s to prove a real human being lived this career. The exact stores. The exact week. The exact hours saved. Three sentences of that beats three paragraphs of optimized polish, every single time. Because no AI knew about the moment that actually mattered.Place Two: The Conversation — the edge is Presence. Hiring managers are exhausted by perfect answers. What they remember is the candidate who paused before answering, who admitted uncertainty, who told a real story instead of running a STAR-method script. Stop preparing answers. Start preparing stories. Pick three to five real moments from your career and memorize the feeling, not the words. Let yourself be a person, not a performance.Place Three: The Follow-Up — the edge is Generosity. The thank-you note is where almost no one stands out, which is exactly why it’s where you can. A real follow-up does three things: it references one specific thing the hiring manager said, it adds one thing you wished you’d said in the conversation, and it closes with a genuine offer to give more. Specific. Additive. Generous. In a market full of polish, that’s the rarest thing of all.“If your resume looks like everyone else’s — you don’t have a resume problem. You have a voice problem. If your interviews are blending together in your own memory — you don’t have an interview problem. You have a story problem. If your follow-ups are getting no response — you don’t have a follow-up problem. You have a connection problem. And the fix in every one of those cases is the same. Be a person. On purpose. Out loud. With specifics.”🎧 Subscribe: ronthurston.com📚 Ron’s Books:Retail Pride — amazon.com/dp/1544509456Human Pride — geni.us/humanpride (the first four chapters speak directly to the person in the job search right now — about the version of you that hasn’t been edited down to fit)🔗 Sources & Stats Referenced:Insight Global, 2025 AI in Hiring Survey Report — 88% of hiring managers say they can tell when a candidate is using AI in applications, cover letters, or resumes; 54% say they would care if they did. Conducted with Atomik Research, surveying 1,005 U.S. hiring managers in November 2024. insightglobal.com/2025-ai-in-hiring-reportTopResume, Where Employers Draw the Line on AI in Hiring — 19.6% of recruiters would reject a candidate with an AI-generated resume or cover letter; 33.5% can spot an AI-generated resume in under 20 seconds. Survey of 600 U.S. hiring managers, May 2025. topresume.com/career-advice/ai-in-hiring-surveySHRM, Recruitment Is Broken. Automation and Algorithms Can’t Fix It. — Industry estimate that 40% to 80% of job applicants use AI to write resumes, craft cover letters, and prepare for interviews. shrm.org/topics-tools/news/hr-trends/recruitment-is-brokenDisher Talent, AI in Recruiting 2026: What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t) — Industry analysis on AI-flooded application volume and the erosion of resumes as a reliable signal. dishertalent.com/blog/ai-in-recruiting-2026👤 Follow Ron:LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/ron-thurstonInstagram — @retailprideWebsite — ronthurston.comEpisodes 18–23 are built for anyone in career transition — retail or otherwise. If you built something, lost a role, or you’re figuring out what’s next, this series is for you.Next up — Episode 22: Your Story Is the Strategy