Hanshow, a global provider of digital store solutions, has launched xPilot at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific in Singapore on June 3, unveiling a real-time AI-powered store execution assistant built in collaboration with Microsoft. The announcement marks a significant development in the ongoing transformation of physical retail, signaling how advanced artificial intelligence and connected technologies are being brought together to address some of the most persistent operational challenges facing brick-and-mortar stores. As retailers increasingly seek to compete in an environment shaped by digital expectations and rising consumer demands, the introduction of xPilot reflects a broader industry movement toward intelligent, responsive, and data-driven store management.
The product, announced on the final day of the three-day conference held at Marina Bay Sands from June 2 to 4, is designed to help physical retailers bridge a critical gap, namely the divide between collecting in-store data and acting on it quickly enough to prevent lost sales. This challenge has long bedeviled the retail sector, where valuable insights about inventory, product placement, and customer behavior are often gathered but not translated into timely action. By focusing on the speed and precision with which data can be converted into operational decisions, xPilot addresses a fundamental weakness in traditional retail operations, offering the prospect of a more agile and effective approach to managing the complexities of the modern store environment.
At the technical heart of the platform lies a sophisticated integration of Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies. Built on Microsoft Azure, xPilot uses Microsoft Fabric to unify in-store sensing data, gathered from electronic shelf labels, smart carts, robotics, and other Internet of Things devices, with retailers’ underlying business data. AI agents powered by Microsoft Foundry then translate those live store signals into operational decisions, automating task assignment and verification across store environments. This layered architecture enables the system to draw upon a rich stream of real-time information and to act upon it intelligently, creating a closed loop in which sensing, analysis, and execution are seamlessly connected. The result is a platform capable of responding to conditions on the store floor with a speed and consistency that would be difficult to achieve through manual processes alone.
Among the platform’s most notable capabilities is its creation of a live 3D digital twin of each store, a virtual representation that continuously mirrors the physical environment. This digital twin automatically detects issues such as out-of-stock situations and instances of planogram non-compliance, where products are not arranged according to the intended layout. Once such problems are identified, tasks are prioritized by their commercial impact and assigned dynamically based on staff location and workload, ensuring that the most consequential issues receive prompt attention from the most appropriately positioned employees. The results of these tasks are then validated through in-store IoT systems, closing the loop and confirming that the necessary actions have been carried out effectively. This combination of detection, prioritization, assignment, and verification represents a comprehensive approach to store execution that aims to maximize both efficiency and impact.
The significance of this approach was emphasized by Relvin Sun, Dean of the Hanshow Retail Research Institute, who articulated the strategic thinking behind the product. “The next phase of retail competitiveness will be defined by the speed and precision of transferring insights into execution,” Sun stated. “With xPilot, we are helping physical stores become more responsive, intelligent and scalable.” His remarks underscore the central premise underlying the platform, namely that success in the evolving retail landscape will depend not merely on the ability to gather information but on the capacity to act upon it swiftly and accurately. By framing execution speed and precision as the defining competitive factors of the future, Sun positioned xPilot as a tool tailored to the demands of a rapidly changing industry.
The launch of xPilot extends a collaboration between Hanshow and Microsoft that was first announced at NRF 2026 in New York in January, when the two companies revealed plans to explore a Store Digital Twin framework aimed at accelerating retail digital transformation. This continuity demonstrates a sustained and deliberate partnership, with the Singapore announcement representing the maturation of ideas first introduced earlier in the year. Central to this effort is Hanshow’s infrastructure of widely deployed electronic shelf labels, which provides the real-time sensing foundation that feeds xPilot’s AI layer. This existing network of devices gives the platform a practical and scalable means of capturing the granular store-level data upon which its intelligence depends, illustrating how established hardware infrastructure can serve as the bedrock for advanced AI-driven applications.
A key strength of xPilot lies in its design as an open, cloud-native platform, an attribute that enhances its flexibility and appeal to a wide range of retailers. The platform supports cross-cloud deployment and integration with third-party IoT devices and AI models, targeting enterprise-grade retail deployment across global markets without requiring retailers to replace their existing technology investments. This emphasis on openness and compatibility addresses a common concern among retailers contemplating new technology, namely the cost and disruption associated with overhauling established systems. By allowing organizations to adopt xPilot while preserving their current investments, Hanshow and Microsoft have positioned the platform as a pragmatic and accessible solution suited to the realities of large-scale retail operations.
Taken together, the launch of xPilot represents a meaningful step forward in the application of artificial intelligence and connected technologies to the physical retail environment. By uniting real-time sensing, digital twin modeling, and AI-driven decision-making within a single open platform, Hanshow and Microsoft have created a tool that addresses long-standing operational challenges while pointing toward a more intelligent and responsive future for stores. As retailers around the world continue to navigate the pressures of competition, shifting consumer expectations, and the imperative of digital transformation, solutions such as xPilot may play an increasingly important role in determining which businesses thrive. The collaboration between an established provider of digital store solutions and one of the world’s leading technology companies underscores the growing convergence of retail and advanced computing, offering a compelling glimpse into how the stores of tomorrow may be managed and optimized in an era defined by data and intelligence.
