Retail Technology Innovation of the Week is a series brought to you by RTIH, highlighting stand out deployments, launches, and initiatives by retailers and tech suppliers.

Every week, we showcase forward thinking tech plays that have impressed our Editor and the Retail Technology Innovations Report judging panel, building up to the publication of the 2026 report later this year.

And this week we’re focusing on Morrisons which has partnered with Duvo.ai as it looks to identify opportunities to make greater use of AI across its existing systems.

Duvo was co-founded by Tomáš Čupr, who founded Rohlik Group, the European online grocer. It identifies and automates repetitive business tasks, freeing up team members to focus on decision-making, creativity, customer service and partner relationships.

The project will start by capturing how processes actually work across the UK grocery retailer's people, teams and systems. Duvo will then help it identify opportunities to simplify and redesign those processes, focusing where AI can create the most value, and highlighting a pathway for their swift adoption into everyday operations.

"Our business processes have evolved over decades and Duvo gives us a way to understand them in detail, and quickly," says Gordon MacPherson, Group Productivity Director at Morrisons.

"It means decisions about which repetitive everyday tasks to simplify, redesign and automate can be based on evidence rather than assumptions. That will give us a much clearer path from identifying AI opportunities to putting them into operation, freeing up our people to concentrate on high value work for the benefit of colleagues and customers."

And honourable mentions this week to...

M&S

Vusion reports that Marks & Spencer will deploy its Connected Store platform to a number of new stores, with further roll-out potential in the future.

The deployment will support the retailer's focus on modernising store operations and improving the in-store experience for customers and colleagues.

Built on Bluetooth enabled infrastructure, Vusion's EdgeSense platform is designed to help connect store systems, product information and colleague activity more effectively across the shopfloor.

The initial deployment will focus on practical operational improvements, including managing product information more effectively, supporting colleagues in locating products more efficiently through location aware capabilities such as flashing labels, helping simplify in-store inventory processes and shopfloor execution, and creating a digital foundation that may support further store innovation over time.

Roy Horgan, CEO UK & Ireland at Vusion, says: “We are pleased to be working with M&S as it continues to invest in its store estate and colleague experience. Our Connected Store platform is designed to help retailers improve operational execution while providing the infrastructure to support future innovation.”

Seed to Table

Seed to Table, a grocery retailer in Naples, Florida, has created Goldie, a conversational AI avatar who shoppers can talk to via a full size Proto Hologram screen.

“Seed To Table is a cutting-edge grocery store/entertainment Mecca like no other and adding Goldie to it just brings us to another level that no other supermarket has,” says Dan St. Martin, General Manager. "We are the Disney World of supermarkets.”

At the entrance, a seven-foot Proto Hologram presents information, advertising and Goldie, which has a face, voice and whimsical personality. Shoppers can ask Goldie questions, get recommendations and discover ideas. She can also remember preferences and previous interactions.

Throughout the store, participating brands use QR enabled shelf displays. Shoppers can scan to discover a brand story, learn about a product, receive an offer or recommendation, and explore content created specifically around what they’re seeing.

“Seed to Table deserves tremendous credit for having the vision to be first,” says James Beckmann, CEO at Live Buzz Intelligence. “They’re showing what is possible when a retailer modernises engagement at exactly the right moment. We’re excited to bring something genuinely new to shoppers.”