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TL;DR
The Interview Takeaway: 3 Things I Learned from Tom Schmitt, the CEO of Radial. We are further away from autonomous AI in certain use cases than we want to admit.
Investor News Roundup
Did you know that you can book Rick to speak at your event? Keynotes and closed-door customer events, Rick tells it as it is. Your guests and audience will thank you.
THE INTERVIEW TAKEAWAY
3 Things I Learned From Tom Schmitt, the CEO of Radial
After interviewing Tom Schmitt, the CEO of Radial, my 3 takeaways are:
The AI agent trust gap — Radial surveyed 1,000 US consumers and found nearly two-thirds are uncomfortable sharing payment information with AI agents. Rick's framing: that's not a technology problem; it's a brand problem. Operators who skip trust-building and go straight to autonomous checkout will learn this the hard way.
Most AI is failing its ROI test right now — and that's expected — Tom's crawl, walk, run framework is a diagnosis, not a hedge. Items like demand forecasting and pick-path optimization can and do have measurable returns today. Fully autonomous warehouse orchestration does not, at least yet. The winners are building a foundation before reaching for the stars.
Agentic commerce has a data standards problem almost nobody is talking about — Radial is a founding member of ONX (the Order Network eXchange), an open industry standard for how order, inventory, and fulfillment data moves between systems.
THE BIG IDEA
Agentic commerce only works if agents read the same language, and that work is already underway.
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE
Why Most AI Projects Are Failing — And What to Do Before It's Too Late
March 18, 2026
INVESTOR NEWS ROUNDUP
Retail execution platform: Eileen announced it has raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding for product development.
We talk wholesale nurseries too: Blue Grass Farms acquired Brehob Nursery for an undisclosed price.
Big food? Puratos announced that it will acquire Dawn Foods to create a complementary professional bakery business.
Agent security? OpenAI announced it acquired PromptFoo to secure its AI agents and LLMs inside its Frontier platform.
EARNINGS WATCH
FedEx (results after market open on March 19): What impact will the oil price uncertainty have on FedEx’s guidance?
WATSON IN THE WILD
Missed any of the Watson Webinars? From recaps to earnings and more - Watch the webinars.
Highlights and sizzle from our latest NRF 2026 Watson Weekend Live! event on January 11, 2026, presented by Radial - What is Important in 2026?
UPCOMING EVENTS
Shoptalk 2026: Join us for the Watson Live! — Agentic Debate Series Lunch at Shoptalk Las Vegas 2026 - Register Now.