Sustainable Business Transformation: Integration Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In The Strategic Decision-Making Processes Of Retail Companies

Abstract

The digital transformation in the retail sector has opened increasingly wide space for the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the foundation of strategic decision-making. This article comprehensively examines how AI integration can drive retail business sustainability across five main dimensions: retail paradigm shifts, predictive market analysis, AI-based operations, competitive advantages, and the ethical challenges of its implementation. Using the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method with the PRISMA protocol, this study synthesizes 47 scientific articles from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases published between 2020 and 2024. The findings demonstrate that retail companies adopting AI in a structured manner experience up to a 35% improvement in demand prediction accuracy, an average 20–28% reduction in operational costs, and significant growth in customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, AI adoption also carries non-trivial risks, including algorithmic bias, data privacy vulnerabilities, and workforce disruption that have not been fully managed. This study contributes to the development of a contextual AI-strategic integration conceptual framework for retailers, while offering practical implications for policymakers and retail business managers in the post-pandemic era.