Following record-high R&D investment, unified commerce leader debuts AI Super Agents and Aptos ONE Country Box at NRF 2026
NEW YORK — Jan. 11, 2026 — Aptos, a leader in unified commerce solutions, announced today at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show the results of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investment to streamline two of retailers’ toughest operational challenges: AI readiness and global expansion.
In Booth 4639, Aptos unveiled two strategic initiatives: a comprehensive AI Readiness program that provides the data foundation, embedded insights and “Super Agents” needed for AI success, and the launch of Aptos ONE Country Box, a first-of-its-kind modular solution that lowers the time, cost and complexity of opening stores in new countries.
Aptos technology is trusted by hundreds of retailers around the world, including the most recognized brands in apparel, footwear, specialty, beauty, general merchandise, department store and hard goods retailing, and these innovations are set to have a profound impact on the retail industry in 2026.
A staggering 63% of organizations lack or are unsure if they have the right data management practices for AI, according to a recent Gartner survey. Even more troubling, Gartner predicts that 60% of AI projects will be abandoned through 2026 if unsupported by AI-ready data.
“Data and AI are far too valuable to be underutilized by any organization – particularly retailers,” said Nikki Baird, Aptos VP of Strategy and Product. “That is why we launched a comprehensive data initiative to help our customers harness the data they already have, leverage more AI capabilities in Aptos’ products and usher in what’s next — AI Super Agents for better store experiences.”
Key components of Aptos’ AI Readiness program include:
Looking more closely at Aptos’ agentic journey, the three distinct Super Agents coming to Aptos ONE POS include:
“Agents are the next level of AI capability that we are developing for our customers,” said Baird. “The preliminary phase of agent deployment includes our Customer Insights Summary, which provides AI-generated preferences and propensity-to-buy details based on the customer record. In 2026, we will evolve this into our Concierge Agent.
“At the core of our agentic roadmap is the belief that store employees can have a positive impact on each customer who walks through the door,” Baird said. “By equipping store associates with more knowledge, scale and resources — via modern POS and agents — our solutions enhance human relationships, drive sales and boost long-term loyalty.”
Demonstrations of Customer Insights Summary, Concierge Agent, Advanced Embedded Insights and other AI advancements will be available in Aptos Booth 4639 throughout the NRF event.
In 2026, Aptos is launching Aptos ONE Country Box, a breakthrough approach that externalizes country-specific fiscalization requirements outside the core POS application. Built on the Aptos ONE platform, Country Box will dramatically lower retailers’ total cost of ownership for entering and sustaining a presence in new countries.
According to Aptos CTO Tushar Sachdev, Aptos ONE Country Box solves multiple pain points retailers face today: large initial costs and extended timelines for new market entry, the ongoing drain on resources and budget to maintain fiscal compliance as regulations rapidly change, and the complexity and inconsistency of running multiple POS instances or solutions across a global estate.
“When deploying a POS application in a new market, there are two main domains that the solution needs to address: localization, which includes elements like language and currency, and fiscalization, which involves highly regulated legal and technical requirements that are mandated by local governments, most often related to how transactions are recorded and reported on for tax purposes,” explains Sachdev.
“Given these complex and dynamic requirements, the burden on the application and retailers’ POS maintenance costs become progressively heavier and higher with each new country that they operate in,” Sachdev said. “With Country Box, we abstracted all features relating to fiscalization into a separate, lightweight processing layer — a Country Box. This layer, which can be in the cloud or physically in the store as required, is able to auto-detect and self-configure based on that country.”
“With Aptos ONE Country Box, we insulated our core POS application from rapidly changing fiscal requirements so our customers can get the best of both worlds — a single, global instance of Aptos ONE POS, continuously deployed, and a simplified, reliable and cost-effective way to manage fiscal needs.”
Currently, Aptos ONE POS offers out-of-the-box localization and fiscalization support for nearly a dozen countries, with more countries added each year. Yet, with nearly 200 countries around the globe, Sachdev is quick to point out that no single POS vendor can offer 100% country compliance coverage and maintain that compliance over time.
“This is where the advantages of Aptos ONE Country Box really shine,” Sachdev said. “With its loosely coupled architecture, Country Box provides a framework for retailers to build additional fiscal solutions on their own or to leverage third parties. The result is that retailers can expand to new countries on their own timelines, with accelerated store openings, lower costs and ultimately higher ROI for their international operations.”
“While POS fiscalization is just one component of global expansion, it has historically been one of the toughest to solve — until now, until Aptos ONE Country Box. We’re thrilled about getting clients live on Aptos ONE Country Box in 2026,” Sachdev said.
Live demonstrations of Aptos ONE Country Box are available throughout the NRF event at Aptos Booth 4639.
About Aptos
Aptos is the global leader in unified commerce solutions for retailers. Our modern, cloud-native POS and advanced enterprise technologies are trusted by hundreds of retail brands around the world. For over 40 years, Aptos has delivered software solutions that help retailers inspire loyalty, maximize revenue and reduce costs.
To learn more, visit www.aptos.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
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Contact:
Kristen Miller
Aptos, LLC
kmiller@aptos.com