UiPath’s next chapter in retail: from Peak’s AI heritage to agentic merchandising at scale
Retail has never moved faster, or been harder to manage.
Demand shifts daily and margins are under constant pressure. Promotions, pricing and inventory decisions must be made in near real time. Yet across much of the industry, merchandising teams are still working with fragmented data, spreadsheets and manual workflows. The result is familiar: slow decision-making, inconsistent execution, missed opportunities and reduced margin.
This is exactly the problem Peak, an AI company born out of Manchester and Jaipur, set out to solve more than a decade ago.
Now part of UiPath, following its acquisition in March 2025, that journey is entering a new phase — one that brings together proven retail AI with enterprise-scale automation and orchestration.
From Peak to UiPath: a new chapter for retail AI
Over the past 10 years, Peak has worked with some of the world’s leading retailers (including Nike, Debenhams Group and The Body Shop) to apply best-in-class AI to commercial decision making. From pricing and promotions to inventory and markdowns, the focus has always been the same: help teams make better decisions faster and deliver measurable improvements in margin and performance.
The acquisition by UiPath in March 2025 marks a significant step forward. By combining Peak’s deep expertise in AI-driven decisioning with UiPath’s global automation platform, retailers can now go beyond insights and recommendations. They can connect prediction, decision making, and execution into a single, continuous process. In short, this is the shift from AI that advises to AI that acts.
Moving from reactive merchandising to continuous retail optimisation
For many retailers, merchandising is still reactive. Markdowns are planned in cycles, promotions are adjusted after performance dips and inventory decisions are revisited once issues appear. By the time action is taken, the opportunity has often passed.
However, in modern retail, what’s now emerging instead is a more dynamic approach.
With agentic AI, merchandising becomes a continuous decisioning process. Systems predict demand and performance across every SKU and location, determine the best course of action and execute those decisions in real time — whether that’s adjusting prices, triggering promotions or rebalancing stock levels.
This approach allows retailers to stay ahead of demand rather than respond to it. Plus, it also creates a more connected operation. Pricing, promotions and inventory decisions are no longer made in isolation, but aligned around shared commercial goals such as margin, sell-through and availability.
Delivering real impact across retail operations
The impact of this shift is already being seen across the industry. Retailers adopting AI-driven merchandising are improving the precision of their pricing and promotional strategies, reducing excess stock, and accelerating decision making across teams. In many cases, this translates into measurable outcomes such as margin uplift, reduced inventory levels and significant time savings.
Just as importantly, it frees up merchandising teams to focus on strategy and creativity, rather than manual analysis and coordination.
As the pace of retail continues to increase, this ability to combine speed, accuracy and execution is becoming a key competitive differentiator.
See it in action at Retail Tech Show
UiPath will be showcasing this next phase of retail innovation at the Retail Technology Show in London on 22–23 April, where more than 15,000 retail professionals are expected to attend.
Visitors to stand W70 will be able to see how agentic AI is transforming merchandising in practice — from demand forecasting and pricing optimisation through to real-time execution across systems.
Following the acquisition of Peak, this also marks UiPath’s arrival as a major player in the retail AI space, combining a decade of proven results with the scale and capability of its global platform.
For retailers looking to move faster, improve margins and turn AI ambition into real-world outcomes, it’s a timely opportunity to explore what’s possible.
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Visit UiPath at stand W70 at Retail Tech Show to learn more and meet the team who will be attending below:
- Catherine Frame, Director, Retail Solutions
- Emma Randerson, Lead Solution Engineer, Retail
- Michael Gordon, Enterprise Account Executive, Retail
