AI Afterhours: Demand Forecasting in Retail

Most retailers have a forecasting problem they have been solving the same way since 2010. The data has changed. The signals have multiplied. The planning systems have not caught up. Somewhere underneath the dashboards and the spreadsheets, a 2026 business is still running on 2010 logic.

Season 1 of AI Afterhours, Signals & Noise, is about how organizations cut through noise, find the signals that matter, and turn them into better decisions. In Episode 3, Demand Forecasting in Retail, I sat down with Bob and Varun for the final episode in our three-part retail arc. Harsha was out sick this week. Get well soon, Harsha.

Bob opened with the frame that carried the whole conversation. The signal-to-noise ratio has flipped. Historical data used to get planners most of the way there. Now it is barely a starting point. He walked us through shifting planners from curation to exception management, and turning the planning team from a cost center into a value driver. Varun took it higher. When the underlying systems do not talk, the planning room becomes a war room where every team is defending a different number. When the data underneath is broken, the AI on top is just polished chaos. Bob’s parting shot is the one to take with you. Stop trying to automate chaos. Fix the chaos first.

Next week we pivot to the factory floor with Episode 4, Manufacturing with Dovient. Different pressures. Same core question.

Bob, thank you. The bar you set is going to be hard to top.

Thank you for tuning in! See you next episode.