In the Race To Digitize Retail, Is the Real Challenge Tech Transformation or People Transformation?

Retailers are confronted almost on a daily basis with new technologies, AI software, blockchains, omnichannel platforms and so on, all promising to reshape the industry.

Yet, in my recent fireside chat with Garima Singh, CTO of Pandora, at eTail London, a different theme emerged: The most persistent challenge in digital transformation is not the technology itself, but the human element underpinning it.

Cutting Through the Hype: A Pragmatic Approach

Singh’s perspective is pragmatic. She has witnessed the cycles of tech hype come and go, and she warns against adopting technology just for the sake of it.

As a technology leader in a large organization, she shared that she prioritizes monitoring both established technology trends from major software providers and the innovative developments coming from startups across various value streams.

She believes it’s essential to keep a close eye on what startups are doing in areas like product design, manufacturing, supply chain, and marketing, as these smaller players often drive meaningful innovation that larger companies can learn from. This dual focus — tracking mainstream trends while also scanning for disruptive ideas emerging from the startup ecosystem — ensures that technology-related decisions are grounded in both relevance and forward-thinking potential.

Value-Driven Technology Adoption

She emphasized, “How do you really segregate the hype from the real value? The first thing is always evaluate, like what's the most pressing thing? What's the most challenging thing in your day to day business for the brand that you're working with?”

At Pandora, Singh applies a value-driven approach to technology adoption, drawing on her previous experience at IKEA, rather than introducing new technologies simply because they are available.

For example, she takes a step back from adopting technologies such as AI or blockchain just for the sake of it. Instead, she focuses on identifying the real business problems that need to be solved. This means carefully analyzing the company’s value streams, value chains, and capabilities to determine where technology can deliver meaningful impact.

For Singh, it’s not about implementing the latest tech trends, but about ensuring that every digital initiative is rooted in solving specific, pressing challenges for the business.

When Tech Adoption Stalls

Singh described how her team secured significant investment in AI — during the height of the AI boom — but failed to ensure the company had the necessary prerequisites to support and adapt to the new technology.

The emphasis was placed too much on acquiring AI, rather than on building the foundational elements required to create real business value, such as strong data quality, a robust data infrastructure, and accessible APIs. Because the investment focused primarily on bringing in AI from the outside without establishing these critical foundations, the initial adoption did not go well, and the technology failed to deliver the expected impact. Singh’s experience highlights the importance of prioritizing foundational capabilities and value creation over simply implementing the latest technology.

The second major challenge Singh talked about regarding digital transformation is upskilling employees and improving digital literacy across the organization.

She emphasized that it’s not enough to simply introduce new technologies like AI: Teams need a clear understanding of what AI actually is, where it can add value, where it shouldn’t be applied, and what risks are involved.

Training the workforce on these fundamentals is essential for meaningful adoption. She pointed out that successful integration can happen in two ways: either by building AI solutions in-house, or by leveraging AI capabilities already embedded in widely used tools, such as GitHub Copilot or Microsoft Copilot. Without this foundational knowledge and targeted upskilling, organizations risk misapplying technology and failing to realize its full potential.

The Human Transformation Imperative

What does it take to address the human side of change?

Singh emphasized: “The big part of any digital transformation is the human transformation.”

She urged the importance of investing heavily in digital literacy and upskilling programs, but also highlighted the need to be strategic about where these efforts are focused. She believes it’s crucial to identify which parts of the organization need to adapt to new technologies and which areas can maintain their current approach, rather than trying to overhaul everything at once. This targeted approach helps ensure that resources are used effectively and that change is manageable, rather than disruptive for the sake of it.

She advised leaders to overcommunicate: “What are we changing? Why are we changing? And how are we changing? Not to the all details, but at least show them the roadmap… Overcommunication of what, why and how gives them some level of clarity.”

She also highlighted the value of internal ambassadors: “You need to find that 1% adopter, even though in a crowd of, let's say 45,000 people, if you get one, that's good enough because they would create that change momentum that, oh, now the change has really delivered something.”

Singh explained that as a global leader, she aims to create an innovation culture where not only are unconventional ideas that lead to success celebrated, but so are the bold ideas that don’t always work out. She believes it’s important to recognize and appreciate when people step out of their comfort zones and take risks, regardless of the outcome. By celebrating both achievements and setbacks, Singh encourages a culture where experimentation and learning are valued, helping to build an environment where ongoing innovation can thrive.

Balancing Speed and Strategic Focus

Retailers often feel pressure to move quickly, but Singh warns against diluting focus. “What I, I really, really have now built a very strong advocacy on is the 70/30 split… 70%… tech for business, which really helps the business to either elevate the customer experience or bring new revenue streams… But 30% is actually innovation and technical foundation digitalization or modernization. Because if you don't have a strong foundation, there is no way that you could keep on building tech for tech continuously.”

Securing Buy-In

On stakeholder engagement, Singh says, “The first thing that I do as a CTO is to talk business language. So the first thing that I do is, of course, always prepare a business case which talks about the value that they care the most.”

Challenging Assumptions

Singh encourages retail leaders to challenge two common assumptions: “Not every tech is for you. Right. So let your digital experts choose the technology stack for you. And you of course, focus on the value creation… Please challenge the digital leaders as well by bringing in the innovation from outside.”

People at the Core of Transformation

As our conversation came to a close as our time ran out, one insight was unmistakable: “The big part of any digital transformation is the human transformation.” Technology may provide the tools, but it is a workforce that is informed, empowered, and engaged that ultimately determines whether potential is realized.