From Insights to Impact: AI Takes the Next Step

This interview is brought to you by PriceEasy.

Everyone is talking about the future of AI. What is AI actually doing in convenience retail today? 

Raj Golecha, CEO, PriceEasy: AI is already fundamentally changing how convenience retailers operate.

The biggest transformation is that AI is moving beyond analytics. It can connect information across the business, answer complex questions on demand, recommend actions and increasingly take actions on behalf of the retailer.

PriceEasy’s Cortex AI acts as an intelligence layer connecting fuel pricing, store pricing, promotions, inventory, customer behavior and operations. Instead of analyzing each area independently, retailers can make holistic decisions on demand.

More importantly, retailers can now create and train personal AI assistants that can actually perform work for them.

What do you mean by creating a personal AI assistant? 

Golecha: Think about how you train a new employee. You explain what to monitor, what action to take, who to contact, when to follow up and when to escalate. Retailers can train AI in a similar way.

For example, you could create a fuel inventory assistant and say: “Whenever inventory falls below 3,000 gallons, contact my wholesaler and request delivery within 24 hours. If they cannot deliver, follow up, evaluate alternatives and escalate based on my instructions.”

Cortex can then continuously monitor the situation and help manage the workflow from beginning to end.

A retailer can create multiple personal AI assistants for different parts of the business. One might monitor fuel inventory and coordinate deliveries. Another could monitor competitors and pricing conditions. Another could analyze store performance and identify opportunities requiring attention.

Because Cortex operates across the PriceEasy ecosystem, these assistants don’t have to work independently. Cortex becomes the intelligence and orchestration layer connecting the different pieces of the business.

The fundamental difference is that traditional software performs predefined functions. AI can be trained around how the retailer wants work to get done.

Say a retailer wants to become more AI-driven. Does that mean it needs to replace its existing technology? 

Golecha: No—and this is extremely important. Replacing technology across hundreds or thousands of locations can be expensive, disruptive and painful.

The objective should not be to rip and replace the technology that already works. The much more practical approach is to put an AI intelligence layer on top of the retailer’s existing technology infrastructure.

Continue reading “More Than Just Buzz” in the September 2026 issue of NACS Magazine.

Artificial Intelligence