Krystina Gustafson: Innovating at the Intersection of Content, AI, Agentic Commerce and Digital Retail Conferences...

Krystina started out in journalism (CNBC), that took her at Shoptalk where she was SVP of content. Now she's an entrepreneur, founding a new innovative concept that we love: RetailClub 🚀!

Krystina Gustafson s the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of RetailClub, a next-generation event platform focused on the intersection of retail and AI. Prior to RetailClub, she spent seven years at Shoptalk, where she led content across the global event portfolio during a period of rapid growth.

She started her career in journalism at CNBC before moving into events, where she spent seven years helping build Shoptalk into one of the most influential gatherings in retail. Along the way, she’s worked closely with executives, operators, and innovators across the industry.

Today, she’s focused on one thing: helping the retail ecosystem navigate the shift to rise AI and what comes next.

Listen/Watch Our Interview:

Krystina talks to hundreds of retailers across the globe and is able to synthesize what she’s hearing into amazing conference content. In this episode she shares what she’s hearing from operators, board members, and data leaders on what is top of mind in their organizations. What are the biggest opportunities and what are the biggest fears?

At the same time, we explore how agentic commerce is reshaping traffic, discovery, and brand relationships and what that means for the future of ecommerce.

Highlights

• AI is forcing a full end-to-end transformation of retail

• Many companies are prioritizing the wrong AI initiatives, focusing on hype instead of P&L impact

• A growing concern: “dark” or untracked AI-driven traffic is already impacting performance

• Data strategy is becoming a core battleground: What do you give AI platforms? What do you get back? Do CRMs need to evolve entirely?

• The real unlock for AI shopping is complex, multi-step purchases (travel, events, planning)

• The industry is early, but pressure from boards and declining traffic is accelerating adoption

The future of retail will be defined by who applies it to the right problems.

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