Introduction: Why Retail & CPG must Modernize Applications and Data
Retail and CPG organizations are at a critical inflection point. Customer expectations for personalization, speed, and availability continue to rise, while many enterprises remain constrained by legacy applications and fragmented data ecosystems.
AI-led application and data modernization has emerged as a pragmatic, high-impact approach to transform legacy systems and data together—creating a foundation for agility, intelligence, and future-ready digital commerce
Historically, application modernization and data modernization were pursued as independent initiatives. In today’s omnichannel, real-time environment, this separation limits business impact.
Common Retail & CPG challenges include:
- Siloed customer, product, and inventory data across channels
- Legacy ERP, merchandising, and supply-chain platforms
- Slow response to demand volatility and promotional cycles
- Limited ability to operationalize AI use cases due to data quality gaps
Modernizing applications without data modernization accelerates systems but not insights.
Modernizing data without application modernization limits adoption and execution.
AI enables both to evolve in lockstep.
What Is AI-Led Application & Data Modernization?
AI-led modernization applies machine learning, large language models (LLMs) , generative AI, and intelligent automation to:
- Assess and refactor legacy applications
- Modernize enterprise data platforms and pipelines
- Enable cloud-native, modular, and analytics-ready architectures
The result is an intelligent Retail & CPG enterprise—capable of sensing demand, responding faster, and continuously optimizing performance.
Pillar 1: AI-Led Legacy Application Modernization
AI accelerates modernization across:
- ERP customizations
- Merchandising, OMS, WMS, and pricing systems
- Store, warehouse, and manufacturing platforms
Key Capabilities
- Intelligent code discovery and dependency mapping
- AI-driven refactoring and API enablement
- Automated test generation and regression testing
Retail impact:
30–50% faster modernization with minimal disruption during peak seasons and promotions.
Pillar 2: AI-Driven Data Modernization
Modern commerce depends on trusted, real-time data across the value chain.
Unified Retail Data Foundation
AI enables:
- Harmonization of customer, product, inventory, and supplier data
- Migration from legacy data warehouses to cloud lakehouse platforms
- Real-time and event-driven data pipelines
Data Quality, Governance & Trust
- Automated deduplication and anomaly detection
- Product and SKU attribute normalization
- Privacy, security, and compliance automation
Outcome:
A single, reliable source of truth that supports analytics and AI at scale.
Business Intelligence & AI-Enabled Decisioning
With modernized applications and data in place, AI shifts from reporting to embedded intelligence.
High-value Retail & CPG use cases include:
- Personalized customer engagement
- Demand forecasting and inventory optimization
- Pricing and promotion effectiveness analysis
- Supply-chain risk detection and mitigation
- Merchandising and assortment optimization
AI becomes part of daily decision-making across commercial and operational teams.
A Look Ahead: Preparing for Autonomous & Agent-Driven Commerce
As application and data foundations mature, Retail and CPG organizations are increasingly exploring agent-based AI capabilities—where intelligent systems can monitor conditions, recommend actions, and, in controlled scenarios, execute decisions within defined guardrails.
Examples include:
- Automated replenishment recommendations
- Dynamic promotion tuning
- Intelligent order routing and fulfillment optimization
While still emerging, these capabilities depend entirely on modernized applications, trusted data, and strong governance—making today’s modernization efforts the essential prerequisite for tomorrow’s autonomous commerce models.
Enterprises that align agentic intelligence with modern architectures — enabling discover-to-purchase flows inside conversational interfaces, unified data-and-commerce platforms, seamless experiences — will not only optimize operations but also redefine customer experience in profound new ways.
Conclusion
AI-led application and data modernization is no longer an IT transformation—it is a business transformation for Retail and CPG enterprises. By modernizing systems and data together, organizations unlock faster innovation, better decisions, and the flexibility to adopt future capabilities such as agent-driven commerce when the time is right.
Those who act now will not only modernize their technology stack—but also position themselves to lead in an increasingly intelligent and automated retail landscape.
Retailers who modernize legacy applications & Data with governance together will lead the next decade of trusted, intelligent, AI-enabled retail.
