Accenture, the global consulting firm. is pursuing opportunities in the retail industry, funding and partnering with the agentic AI development company Profitmind.
Retail industry studies indicate that many retailers are piloting or partially deploying AI agents, but full enterprise-wide rollouts have been limited. Challenges with data integration, skills gaps, and customer confidence have been key factors in slowing the transition, according to TechRadar.
Profitmind, a retail technology company, is developing an agentic AI platform to automate pricing, inventory, and planning decisions. The three-year-old company received funding from Accenture through Accenture Ventures, which sees an opportunity for agentic AI to be increasingly adopted across retail, from back-office operations to consumer-facing assistants.
Filling a Gap
According to Accenture’s press statement, unlike rules-based automation, agentic AI systems interpret large, dynamic datasets and coordinate actions across workflows in near real time.
Profitmind’s platform uses multiple AI agents to connect data from pricing, promotions, assortment, and inventory, generating actionable recommendations with transparent logic, according to the company.
Jill Standish, Accenture’s global retail lead, noted that the platform addresses the cause of merchandising leaders being overwhelmed, delaying timely decisions. ProfitMind will help retailers respond to analytics more quickly. This is a time when merchandising teams are managing increasing complexity, occurring across channels, promotions, supply chains, and pricing.
“Profitmind bridges the gap between insight and action,” and described the platform as reflecting retail operations while concentrating on trustworthy, actionable recommendations,” she stated.
Leading the Way in Retail
Profitmind CEO and co-founder Dr. Mark Chrystal has both retail industry and technology experience to lead Profitmind in this transformation. He is a board member of the retailer Bealls and the co-founder of MachineCore, a customer analytics company.
Chrystal launched the first agentic retail platform at NRF 2024. He stated that the Accenture partnership will help address operational complexity across markets, channels, and data systems and will extend Profitmind’s global reach.
The company reports its platform is used by retailers with revenues ranging from $20 million to $100 billion across three continents. It notably cites outcomes such as a profit improvement of over 250 basis points for one client and hundreds of hours saved monthly in manual data work, according to Accenture news.
Profitmind will join other companies to showcase AI technology at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show, scheduled for January 11 to 13, 2026, in New York City.
Hear the Experienced Voices Podcast: Susan Newman & Rob Grimes | The Excitement of Retail Innovation who talk about the breakthrough retail technology showcased at the NRF.
