Retail brands are increasingly blending artificial intelligence with human expertise to deliver more personalized customer experiences across digital and physical channels. Endear, a retail customer relationship management (CRM) platform, has been named Cross-Channel Orchestration Platform of the Year in the 2026 MarTech Breakthrough Awards, highlighting a growing shift toward AI-assisted customer engagement that empowers store associates rather than replacing them.

Endear has been recognized as the Cross-Channel Orchestration Platform of the Year in the 2026 MarTech Breakthrough Awards, reflecting the evolving role of AI in retail customer engagement. The annual awards program recognizes innovation across marketing, sales, customer experience, and advertising technologies, with Endear receiving recognition for its approach to combining artificial intelligence with associate-led customer relationships.

The award comes as retailers seek alternatives to highly automated marketing strategies that often struggle to create meaningful customer engagement. While many marketing platforms focus on scaling email campaigns and automated messaging, Endear positions store associates as a key component of omnichannel customer engagement by using AI to recommend outreach opportunities rather than fully automating customer interactions.

At the core of the platform is a unified customer relationship management system that consolidates interactions across ecommerce, physical stores, appointments, messaging, and customer communications into a single real-time customer profile. This unified view enables retail associates to understand purchase history, customer preferences, and previous interactions before initiating personalized conversations.

Cross-channel orchestration enables brands to coordinate customer engagement consistently across online and offline channels using unified customer data and intelligent workflow automation. Rather than treating digital and in-store experiences separately, orchestration platforms synchronize communications throughout the customer journey.

A major addition to the platform is AI Opportunity Engine, introduced earlier this year. The feature analyzes customer signals and generates prioritized daily outreach recommendations for store associates, identifying which customers may benefit from personalized engagement and suggesting when outreach is most appropriate. The objective is to establish consistent relationship-building practices while reducing reliance on manual customer identification.

According to Endear, participating retail locations experienced a significant increase in associate-led outreach following the implementation of AI Opportunity Engine. The company reports that stores, including those with little previous outreach activity, increased associate engagement substantially while achieving measurable improvements in campaign return on investment. These figures are based on customer results reported by the company.

The platform's strategy reflects a broader evolution within retail technology. Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for frontline employees, many enterprise retail technology providers are increasingly deploying AI as a decision-support tool that augments human expertise. This approach aligns with growing industry interest in "human-in-the-loop" AI, where automation enhances productivity while preserving personalized customer interactions.

Endear currently supports more than 2,000 retail stores across 19 countries, serving brands including Reformation, Jones Road Beauty, and Boll & Branch. The platform combines customer relationship management, messaging, appointment scheduling, and AI-assisted outreach within a unified retail engagement environment designed specifically for omnichannel commerce.

The recognition also highlights changing priorities within retail CRM. Traditional CRM systems primarily functioned as customer record repositories, while modern retail CRM platforms increasingly emphasize real-time engagement, predictive insights, and coordinated communication across digital and physical touchpoints. As customer journeys become more fragmented, retailers are investing in technologies that connect in-store associates with broader digital marketing strategies.

Major enterprise software providers including Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, and Google continue expanding AI capabilities across customer experience and commerce platforms, while specialized retail technology companies are differentiating themselves through industry-specific workflows and customer engagement tools. Endear's emphasis on associate-driven selling reflects a growing market segment focused on relationship commerce rather than large-scale marketing automation.

Industry research supports this direction. According to Forrester, customers increasingly expect consistent and personalized experiences across every interaction with a brand, regardless of channel. Gartner also identifies AI-assisted customer engagement as a key priority for organizations seeking to improve both customer satisfaction and employee productivity. These trends are encouraging retailers to integrate AI into frontline operations while maintaining authentic human interactions.

For enterprise marketing teams, platforms like Endear demonstrate how customer engagement strategies are evolving beyond automated messaging. By combining AI-generated recommendations with personalized outreach from store associates, retailers can potentially improve customer loyalty, repeat purchases, and lifetime value while maintaining a consistent brand experience across channels.

The recognition also reflects a broader shift toward relationship-based retailing. As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, many brands are placing greater emphasis on maximizing existing customer relationships rather than relying exclusively on paid acquisition. AI-powered cross-channel orchestration platforms provide retailers with tools to identify high-value engagement opportunities while enabling associates to build stronger customer connections.

Although the MarTech Breakthrough Awards recognize innovation rather than market leadership, Endear's award illustrates how retail CRM platforms are evolving. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into enterprise marketing technology, the future of customer engagement may depend less on fully automated campaigns and more on intelligent systems that strengthen meaningful human interactions.

Market Landscape

Retail customer engagement is shifting toward AI-assisted relationship management as brands seek to deliver more personalized omnichannel experiences. Forrester reports that customer expectations for consistent cross-channel interactions continue to rise, while Gartner identifies AI-enabled customer engagement as a major driver of digital commerce transformation. Retail CRM platforms increasingly combine AI recommendations, unified customer data, and human interactions to improve loyalty and long-term customer value.

Top Insights

• Endear's recognition highlights the growing adoption of AI-assisted customer engagement that enhances store associate productivity rather than replacing human interactions.
• Unified customer profiles enable retailers to coordinate personalized engagement across ecommerce, physical stores, messaging, and appointments.
• AI Opportunity Engine demonstrates how predictive customer insights can help frontline retail teams prioritize high-value customer relationships.
• Retail CRM platforms are evolving beyond customer databases into intelligent engagement systems supporting omnichannel commerce strategies.
• Relationship-driven selling is becoming increasingly important as retailers focus on customer retention, loyalty, and lifetime value in competitive markets.

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