For several days, a large part of the Nordic enterprise technology community gathered at Kistamässan in Stockholm. Stockholm Tech Show serves as an umbrella event for several exhibitions — Retail Technology, Data Centre Expo, Cloud & Cyber Security Expo, DevOps Expo, and Nordic Mobile Expo — together providing a clear snapshot of where the broader technology market is heading.
For us, Retail Technology was naturally the most relevant track. What perhaps made the event particularly interesting was the contrast between the retail-focused content and the rest of the exhibition.
While the industry's largest trade show, Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Barcelona, still focuses heavily on the AV, display, and signage industries themselves, Stockholm Tech Show is much more about the broader digital infrastructure behind tomorrow’s businesses.
And this year, one theme was impossible to miss.
AI.
AI Is No Longer a Separate Category
The most striking aspect of this year’s event was not a specific product or breakthrough innovation.
It was how AI was no longer presented as a standalone future technology, but rather as something embedded across virtually every area of business and technology.
AI, automation, and data analytics were visible everywhere — from cloud platforms and cybersecurity to retail analytics, DevOps, and data center infrastructure. It was also clear that the AI boom is now beginning to have a tangible impact on infrastructure itself. This aspect felt more relevant than ever, driven largely by discussions around capacity, energy consumption, cooling requirements, and AI workloads.
That says a lot about where the technology industry stands today.
AI is no longer a layer added on top of business operations.
It is becoming the infrastructure itself.
Retail Technology – Still Early Days for Retail Media
The Retail Technology section was smaller than the major enterprise technology areas, but at the same time it was the most relevant to us and our industry.
The main focus areas included:
- POS and payment solutions
- Smart store technologies
- ESLs and electronic shelf labels
- Omnichannel and customer experience
- Analytics and personalization
- Digital signage and retail media
There were several signage providers present, although relatively few of the larger international players. Instead, the exhibition featured a number of smaller and regional companies focused on signage, in-store technology, and retail innovation.
There were also several vendors attempting to position themselves closer to the retail media and smart store segments, often through combinations of signage, data, ESLs, and in-store technologies. However, definitions still vary significantly between suppliers, and many appear to be in the early stages of defining their market positioning.
At the same time, retail media is being mentioned far more frequently than it was just a few years ago, even if the market still feels relatively immature compared with events such as NRF Retail’s Big Show in the United States or more dedicated retail media conferences.
Much of the discussion still revolves around:
- The store of the future
- Connected retail
- Digital transformation
- Customer experience
And less around:
- First-party data
- Automation
- Monetization
- Retail media operations
- Adtech
- Programmatic business models
That does not mean retail media is absent.
But it still feels as though many players are in an early exploration phase, where the technology has often progressed further than the business models.
Trade Shows Are Still About People
The most valuable part of any trade show is rarely the exhibition booths themselves.
It is the conversations between them.
Meetings with partners, suppliers, investors, and industry peers often provided more value than the conference sessions. Discussions about where retail media is really heading, how quickly the market is maturing, and which companies are genuinely building for the long term were every bit as important as the technology itself.
And perhaps that was the clearest takeaway from the days spent in Kista.
AI is accelerating almost everything across enterprise technology.
But in retail media, the key challenge is still less about technology and more about business models, ownership, data, and operational maturity.
The technology already exists.
Now the competition is about who truly knows how to use it.
