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✦ Event Recap · February 16–17, 2026 · Mumbai

Where India's Retail Leaders Set the Agenda.
Rootle at Retail Leadership Summit 2026

Two days at Jio World Convention Centre with India's top retail CEOs, brand heads, and omnichannel innovators — exploring how voice AI is simplifying retail conversations.

Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai
Organised by Retailers Association of India
20th Edition · 1,400+ Delegates
Retail Leadership Summit 2026 Mumbai
Representing Rootle.ai at RLS 2026
About the Event

India's Premier Retail Forum,
Its Landmark 20th Edition

Organised by the Retailers Association of India, RLS 2026 marked two decades of bringing together the retail ecosystem for strategy, innovation, and collaboration.

The Retail Leadership Summit is India's flagship platform for senior retail decision-makers, built around strategy, growth, profitability, and the real challenges facing physical, digital, and omnichannel formats. The 2026 edition was its 20th, held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex across February 16 and 17, drawing 1,400 plus delegates from across India and over ten countries.

The summit's agenda centred on five interconnected themes: customer-centricity, value creation, new-age leadership, sustainability, and emerging future paradigms. AI's role in reshaping retail operations, customer journeys, and buying behaviour ran through every session. Knowledge reports from BCG, Deloitte, Meta, and Vector grounded the conversations in data. Speakers from Reliance Brands, Aditya Birla Lifestyle, Marks and Spencer India, BIBA, and Lakme Lever shaped the room's thinking on where Indian retail goes next.

The central message from RAI CEO Kumar Rajagopalan set the tone: 2026 retail will be defined by leadership and execution. Customer-centricity, omnichannel integration, and AI reshaping retail practices are the differentiators. For Rootle, that framing placed voice AI squarely in the conversation.

1,400+
Delegates from 10+ Countries
350+
Speakers including CEOs and CXOs
20th
Edition of India's Premier Retail Summit
2 Days
of Keynotes, Panels, and Workshops
Organised by RAI
Retailers Association of India · India's Largest Retail Trade Body
Our Presence

Voice AI Where Retail
Conversations Get Reimagined

India's retail leaders are not asking whether AI belongs in customer engagement. They are asking which AI, for which touchpoint, and how fast it can go live.

Vikram, Marasim, and Rahul spent two days engaging with retail CEOs, brand heads, D2C founders, and omnichannel operators whose customers speak dozens of languages, shop across formats, and expect service that feels personal at scale.

The conversations at RLS were grounded in execution. These are leaders who have already deployed technology stacks across physical stores, e-commerce platforms, and WhatsApp channels. What they evaluated at Rootle's booth was whether voice AI could slot into that stack and deliver measurable outcomes — not a pilot, but a production system.

1,400+
Delegates from 10+ Countries
350+
Speakers and Brand Leaders
20th
Edition of India's Top Retail Forum
48hr
Rootle Go-Live Time
What the Room Was Asking

Can voice AI handle post-purchase support at scale during peak retail seasons?

How does multilingual voice AI work across Tier-2 and Tier-3 customer bases?

What does a D2C brand's voice AI setup look like from onboarding to go-live?

How does voice AI complement our existing WhatsApp and chat support channels?

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Key Takeaways

Three Things That
Stayed With Us

01
Retail Is Done Expanding. Now It Has to Execute.
The clearest signal from RLS 2026 was a shift in the room's energy: from opening stores and launching channels to making every customer interaction count. The next phase of Indian retail is about depth, not breadth. Voice AI, which handles real conversations at real scale, fits that phase precisely.
02
The Multilingual Customer Is the Growth Frontier.
Every major retailer at RLS is expanding into Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets where the customer speaks Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, or Gujarati and would rather call than tap. Voice AI that handles those conversations at the same quality as metro-facing English support is not a nice-to-have for these brands. It is a market access requirement.
03
Customer Experience Is the New Retail Differentiator.
With price and product converging across formats, the RLS conversation pointed at one remaining differentiator: how the customer feels at every touchpoint. Post-purchase support, complaint resolution, and proactive outreach through voice AI are no longer backend operations. They are brand-building tools.