Live from FMI 2026 in San Diego, Omni Talk Retail’s Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Thom Blischok, Chairman and CEO of The Dialogic Group, at the Simbe booth to discuss why 2026 will be the year retail robotics finally move from pilots to scale.

Thom breaks down what’s driving broader adoption of in store robotics, including rising cost to serve, labor productivity pressures, and the growing need to improve shelf execution and shopper experience. He also shares why change management is often the missing piece in successful deployments and what independent grocers must get right to compete with larger retailers.

Key topics covered:

Why 2026 is the year retail robotics scale
Moving from pilot programs to enterprise deployment
Cost to serve, labor productivity, and shelf efficiency
Change management as a critical success factor
Robotics, shelf intelligence, and the connected store
How independent grocers can compete using technology
Lessons from Schnucks and other early adopters

Stay tuned to Omni Talk Retail for continued coverage from FMI 2026, recorded live from the Simbe booth in the FMI Tech section.

#FMI2026 #GroceryRetail #RetailTechnology #RetailRobotics #InStoreInnovation #ShelfIntelligence #FutureOfRetail #OmniTalkRetail

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