Amazon continued to dominate ecommerce in 2022: But advertising, not retail, was the company’s biggest success story this year—although not enough to prevent the layoffs of 20,000 employees.

IT and technology spending will register anemic mid-single-digit growth throughout our forecast period. Property and casualty tech leaders must maximize spending to support their organizations’ bottom line in a time of extraordinary pressures on profitability.

To stand out against competitors, tech leaders must sharpen their agility to act quickly on emerging opportunities, zero in on key priorities, and carefully allocate budgets.

There’s evidence that automation is coming for our jobs: MIT research shows how automation has reduced workers’ wages over the past 40 years. Expect a future workforce of automation managers.

In 2024, robots will be used by just under half of medium to large operators of warehouses and fulfillment centers in the US. That’s up slightly from 44.9% this year and significantly from 28.0% in 2019.

The pace of automation in retail is increasing. For example, retail drones will expand from nearly 35,000 in 2022 to over 110,000 in 2024, our latest forecast shows. That growth means the industry has the opportunity to improve efficiencies and meet growing consumer demand for better, faster service.

Retailers are increasingly turning toward drones, robots, and automated systems to improve fulfillment and the in-store customer experience (CX).

Today’s privacy-focused ecosystem has fundamentally altered how marketing performance is measured. Ever resilient, most marketers are turning to technology like AI to ensure they can still measure performance and provide personalized experiences, recent Salesforce research has found.

Supply chains snafus are easing, but retailers aren’t out of the woods yet: More investment in supply chain management and automation is needed to futureproof operations as climate change disrupts logistics networks.

Despite slowing sales growth, US ecommerce sales will top $1 trillion for the first time this year. Our “Reimagining Retail” podcast team spoke about the latest ways retailers are trying to streamline their ecommerce operations.

IT spending trumps recession fears: A report shows that the looming recession isn’t dissuading companies from growing IT departments. But a struggling cybersecurity workforce might make it difficult to enact.

Starbucks’ reinvention plan leans on China for growth: The company ignores the threat of lockdowns as it pursues aggressive international expansion.

No economic pain for RaaS: Formic’s cheap rental robots are a lifeline for factories and warehouses suffering from labor shortages. RaaS could help companies compete globally and accelerate US manufacturing.

AI becomes a must-have tool for retailers: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Levi’s, Panera, and others are relying on the technology across all areas of their businesses.

Google tackles AI’s biggest challenge: Under its Everyday Robots subsidiary, the tech giant is building bots that understand what humans really want. But internet data could steer the project off-course.

Google looks to boost transparency around programmatic advertising: Its move comes as our forecast shows spending on these ads will rise steadily through 2024.

EV segment shakeup: Economic uncertainty and inflation have resulted in job cuts across the EV sector, which could slow down bigger players and cripple startups that were beginning to ramp up production.

Robot colleagues on the rise: As robots enter more industries, startups are developing systems for the bots to work collaboratively with humans. Economic turbulence will help and hinder the movement.

AI to help train drones: Microsoft’s Project AirSim combines its expertise in AI, flight simulators, cloud computing, and military-grade security to develop the next generation of drones.

Learn how advertisers, publishers, and ad tech players operate in the programmatic marketplace that fuels over 90% of digital display ad spending.