Retailers have no shortage of data. What they lack is time. SymphonyAI is betting that agentic AI can close that gap.

The Vertical AI specialist today launched the next generation of CINDE Merchandising Agents, introducing a new class of autonomous, role-based AI agents designed to work the way merchants actually operate—weekly, promotion-driven, launch-focused, and reset-oriented. Built on Microsoft Foundry, the agents embed directly into core merchandising workflows, aiming to turn margin insights into action while the week is still unfolding.

Instead of waiting days for analysts to stitch together reports, SymphonyAI’s agents continuously analyze performance, explain what’s changing, identify why it’s happening, and recommend prioritized next steps—automatically.

From Lagging Insights to Live Merchandising Decisions

In most retail organizations, margin-impacting signals surface well before teams act on them. The delay isn’t due to a lack of BI tools—it’s caused by manual interpretation, cross-system analysis, and the handoffs required to make sense of performance shifts.

CINDE Merchandising Agents are designed to eliminate that lag. Rather than reacting after the fact, merchants can intervene mid-cycle, correcting issues before margin erosion compounds across weeks.

“Retailers are no longer reacting to what happened last week—they’re making profitable decisions while the week is still unfolding,” said Manish Choudhary, President of SymphonyAI Retail.

Four Agents, One Merchandising Rhythm

Unlike generic AI assistants, CINDE’s agents are purpose-built for specific merchandising roles:

• Merchant Planner delivers weekly sales insights and flags margin opportunities early.

• Promo Coach explains causal drivers behind promotion performance and recommends optimization moves.

• Launch Analyst surfaces early indicators of new item success—or failure—while there’s still time to course-correct.

• Reset Advisor evaluates post-reset impact and suggests next actions to recover or grow performance.

Together, the agents cover the full in-store merchandising lifecycle, aligning AI output to how merchants already plan, review, and execute.

Agentic AI That Explains the “Why,” Not Just the “What”

A key differentiator is causality. SymphonyAI’s agents don’t just detect anomalies; they explain what’s driving them.

In one real-world example, a regional grocer saw dairy sales decline and initially blamed competitive pricing. The Merchant Planner agent pinpointed the true cause within hours: Greek yogurt had been moved off eye level in a subset of stores during a planogram reset. The agent recommended restoring placement, allowing the retailer to recover margin the following week instead of losing another cycle.

That ability to connect performance shifts directly to operational decisions is where SymphonyAI sees “return on intelligence” becoming tangible.

Built on Microsoft Foundry, Focused on ROI

The agents are built using Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft’s framework for building enterprise-grade, action-oriented AI systems. According to Keith Mercier, VP of Worldwide Retail and Consumer Goods Industries at Microsoft, retailers are done experimenting.

“Retailers are looking for AI that moves beyond pilots and acts as a real margin multiplier,” Mercier said. “By aligning intelligence to the rhythm of weekly retail decisions, SymphonyAI is helping merchants turn insight into profitable action.”

This focus on ROI reflects a broader industry shift: AI in retail is moving from dashboards and forecasts to systems that actively shape decisions in real time.

Why This Matters Now

Merchandising remains one of the most margin-sensitive functions in retail, with outcomes decided store by store and week by week. As pricing pressure, assortment complexity, and labor constraints intensify, the cost of delayed action continues to rise.

By embedding agentic AI directly into merchandising workflows, SymphonyAI is positioning CINDE not as another analytics layer, but as an operational system that helps merchants act faster, more consistently, and with greater confidence.

Retailers attending NRF 2026 can see CINDE Merchandising Agents in action at SymphonyAI’s booth (#1915) and in Microsoft’s “Return on Intelligence” Showcase.

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