en.Wedoany.com Reported - Hanshow unveiled xPilot, a real-time AI store execution assistant, during the NRF 2026 APAC exhibition, built on its digital twin technology. The global retail digital solutions provider stated that this launch marks a key step in its collaboration with Microsoft, aiming to establish an open, scalable store digital twin framework for physical retail, thereby driving an open retail technology ecosystem that enables retailers, solution partners, and in-store IoT applications to connect, integrate, and collaborate based on real-time store intelligence.
xPilot's technical foundation is Microsoft Azure, which integrates store sensor data with retailers' business data through Microsoft Fabric to form a real-time interconnected retail data foundation. On this basis, AI agents powered by Microsoft Foundry convert these real-time signals into faster decisions, ensuring consistency in store operations execution. Essentially a native retail AI agent and intelligent execution assistant, the solution combines real-time sensing, AI decision-making, and automated workflows, continuously feeding data from smart shelves, shopping carts, in-store robots, operational systems, and other IoT terminals into the store digital twin. Leveraging Microsoft Azure's secure, scalable cloud infrastructure and AI agent capabilities, xPilot supports trusted enterprise-level deployment across multiple markets and regions.
Currently, many global retailers, despite significant investments in data and analytics, still struggle to translate insights into consistent and scalable prescriptive actions in stores. xPilot is designed to address this pain point. For retailers, the tool delivers direct operational benefits: store teams can gain real-time visibility into shelf availability, display compliance, and operational alerts, triggering prioritized staff tasks or automated actions. Real-time heatmaps help retailers view data such as sales, foot traffic, conversion rates, labor, and energy consumption, facilitating standardized execution processes, reducing sales losses, and improving overall operational efficiency. Its open architecture also allows integration with ecosystem partners' applications in areas such as merchandise, supply chain, store operations, and customer loyalty.
Chinese retailer Rainbow Department Store became one of the early adopters of xPilot in real store environments. This leading domestic retailer used the assistant to test how digital twin technology can transform real-time store information into consistent operational execution across a large store network. After integrating xPilot with Hanshow's in-store IoT solutions, Rainbow shifted from manual inspection to intelligent workflows, significantly accelerating response times to display and presentation standards and achieving more precise pricing and inventory management.
Hanshow believes that the launch of xPilot marks a new phase in its smart retail innovation, with its digital twin ecosystem extending from store digital infrastructure to intelligent operational execution.
"Our collaboration with Microsoft and numerous partners laid the foundation for the store digital twin," said Relvin Sun, Dean of Hanshow's Retail Research Institute. "With the advent of xPilot, this vision has become a reality. Insights are transformed into actions in real time, prompting retailers and suppliers to shift from reactive operations to proactive, data-driven execution methods."
"What retailers need is not more in-store tools, but more intelligence. A real-time store digital twin that combines unified data with AI agents helps teams not only see what is happening but also take immediate action—this raises the store's IQ and accelerates the evolution toward the store of the future," said Christian O'Donohue, Senior Industry Advisor for Retail and Consumer Goods at Microsoft.
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