Adoption is high. ROI is rare.

The AI maturity gap doesn’t sit between retailers who use AI and those who don’t. The reality now is that it sits between the 95% who are experimenting and the 5% who have embedded AI into how their business operates.

Most retailers are already using AI in some form, testing tools, running pilots, or applying it within individual workflows. But only a small minority have moved beyond isolated use cases to integrate AI into decision-making, planning, and execution across functions.

That is where impact is created. Without integration, AI remains a layer on top of existing processes. With it, AI becomes part of the operating model, shaping how decisions are made and how performance is improved over time.

Retailers are not adopting AI in a single step. They are progressing along a multi-year integration journey, embedding AI gradually as capabilities, confidence, and infrastructure mature.

In this report, the focus is on AI used within marketing and e-commerce operations, where commercial impact is most immediate.

By comparing how long retailers have been working with AI and how deeply AI is integrated into day-to-day marketing and e-commerce tasks, we identified four main stages of AI adoption in retail marketing and e-commerce.

Most retailers began experimenting with AI around 2023, typically through generative tools and large language models (LLMs). Adoption accelerated quickly, with most retailers now having trialed AI in marketing and e-commerce.

But progress beyond this varies. 24% of retailers remain in exploration or pilot phases, still learning where AI creates value. By contrast, 45% have reached an operational stage, where AI is embedded in multiple workflows and influences day-to-day marketing and e-commerce decisions.

A further 26% of retailers say AI is now ingrained at a strategic level, shaping planning, prioritization, and execution across functions.

The maturity gap is visible across all European markets, but differences between them remain relatively narrow. Across regions, AI is currently integrated into roughly 29–35% of marketing and e-commerce tasks, indicating that most retailers are still in the early stages of embedding AI into everyday operations.

Even in more advanced markets, AI is typically applied within specific workflows rather than fully integrated across the organization. This suggests that while adoption is widespread, structural integration remains limited, and no region has yet reached a truly mature state.

The maturity gap isn’t primarily a story of regional leaders and laggards. Every market remains early in structurally embedding AI.

The real separation lies between retailers that build integrated, scalable AI capabilities and those that still operate through isolated use cases.