Category managers in retail have data, dashboards, and even AI pilots running in the background, yet resets still miss their mark. Every cycle, the same problems resurface: layouts don’t hold, promotions underperform, and the shelf rarely matches the plan.
Plans rarely survive first contact with the shelf. A planogram might be designed with perfect data, but the moment it hits the floor, reality takes over: facings get swapped, tags go missing, products drift.
Walk any aisle after a reset and you’ll see it. Part of the shelf will drift from the intended layout within weeks. When that happens, the data feeding your system is not mirroring the plan but a slightly distorted reflection.
Many category teams are already seeing 15–30% productivity gains just by automating repetitive work. That means analysts spend less time reformatting data and more on interpreting what it means for the shelf.
Forecasting models have also become sharper. AI helps planners see when a product is likely to run short, which promotions overlap, and which SKUs carry the most risk if a display slips.
Retail decisions that once lagged behind the market can now keep pace with it. Yet, automation can only take teams so far.
Artificial intelligence can predict and optimize, but it’s still flying blind without feedback from real stores. Many category management systems treat the planogram as the finish line. Once the file leaves HQ, the learning stops.
So when results slip, the assumption is that the AI model was off. But often, the model never got the full story. Two stores might run identical assortments and see completely different outcomes. One executes flawlessly. The other doesn’t get the secondary promotional display up, or the top SKU goes out of stock midweek. Without shelf feedback, HQ groups them together as “mixed performance.” The AI keeps learning from half-truths.
That’s why the real opportunity is in listening.
Across the retail industry, category managers are learning that AI isn’t something you “use.” It’s something you teach. And that only happens when your planners, the stores, and the shelves themselves talk to each other.
Let’s look at how that’s working in practice.
Planning is still the most human part of category management, and the one where most friction hides. Even strong planograms collapse if stores can’t read or apply them.
One global food manufacturer had spent years watching planogram edits disappear between HQ and stores. With Vision Group’s EZPOG, updates now publish instantly, adapt to space constraints, and go live without rework.
As their Senior Sales Executive put it:
“The time savings alone is beyond belief. There’s no price tag you can put on it.”
Accuracy matters as much as speed. When layouts stay true from one end of the chain to the other, even small SKU shifts—one row higher, one column wider—add up to measurable gains.
One of the top five global beauty brands had been running national resets, but couldn’t confirm what actually reached the shelf. With Store360, every field photo now becomes usable data.
Reps can see missing SKUs in seconds and fix them before shoppers notice. Those same photos feed live dashboards at HQ, showing which regions are slipping and which stores are ahead.
“Inventory levels are going back up, sales are going back up, and it’s really moving the needle,” their Senior Director of Retail Execution said.
A big household products brand used Vision Group’s Curate to test localized assortment changes across hundreds of stores. Instead of guessing which SKUs deserved more space, they simulated dozens of combinations until they found one that unlocked a 2% volume lift and a 1.5% revenue increase, without wider distribution or new products.
Each adjustment was tested, verified, and refined in the next cycle. That’s the feedback loop in motion.
AI doesn’t replace the experience that lives inside a category manager’s head. But when it connects that experience to what’s happening in stores, it amplifies it.
The real value of AI category management software is giving teams a faster way to see, test, and improve together.
Vision Group has the tools proven both at HQ and in the field to help category teams make that connection real and turn every reset into a chance to learn. Let’s talk about how that can look for your team.