Driving Agility and Innovation: How Coles is Shaping the Future of Retail with AI and Sustainable Tech

Sakshee Kohli, Head of Engineering and Store Infrastructure at Coles, shares insights into the priorities guiding Coles’ tech strategy. The company’s focus aligns with its 3D strategy: destination for food and drink, accelerated by digital, and delivered consistently for the future. Sakshee highlights that the key goals are delivering faster, maintaining quality and doing so cost-effectively. Agility, in terms of rapid feature deployment and seamless customer experiences, is a top priority, all while keeping an eye on scalability and future readiness.

To navigate the complexity of retail technology, Sakshee emphasises the importance of cross-functional collaboration and ruthless prioritisation. She addresses challenges like managing store infrastructure, ensuring quality in tech deployment and delivering features at scale. Sakshee also discusses how Coles uses technology to solve business problems, like reducing loss through AI-driven skip-scan solutions. By focusing on the business outcomes, tech becomes an enabler for retail innovations, such as improving freshness,…