To Showcase The Future Of AI In Retail, LAB³ Joins Lenovo, Microsoft, and Intel At NRF25: Retail’s Big Show 

LAB³ is thrilled our Strategic Advisor Alan Dang will be co-presenting a session alongside experts from our technology partners Lenovo, Microsoft, and Intel Corporation at NRF2025: Retail’s Big Show, being held in New York City, January 12-14. The transformative session will cover the Future of AI in Retail. 

Achieving three global firsts, LAB³’s cloud services, Lenovo’s edge solutions, Microsoft’s cloud technologies, and Intel’s cutting-edge innovation, recently empowered Australia’s largest convenience and fuel retailer, Viva Energy Australia, to deploy a streamlined, automated build process to minimise the Azure Local build and provisioning process (Azure Local was formerly known as Azure Stack HCI).  

Alan played a key role in the Viva Energy project and is our resident expert in Azure Local / Azure Arc and hybrid solutions. He is passionate about helping businesses achieve measurable business value from AI and edge technologies, and partnering with Viva Energy is a highlight of his career. 

“Our goal was clear: build a scalable, cloud-first, AI-enabled retail ecosystem capable of real-time analytics and exceptional resilience. And that’s where Lenovo, Intel, and Microsoft came in,” said Alan.

“Lenovo’s hardware expertise, Microsoft’s cloud innovation, Intel’s edge-optimised chipsets, and LAB³’s automation capabilities came together seamlessly, showcasing how trust and collaboration deliver results faster and at scale.” 

What was achieved by the technology partners collaborating as one team with Viva Energy was significant. “Small-form-factor edge servers were specifically designed to deliver high-performance computing in constrained spaces – no costly infrastructure modifications were needed. With this, Viva Energy achieved real-time POS capabilities, operational continuity, and scalability across 670+ locations, setting a benchmark for the retail industry,” said Alan.

The Azure Local solution is repeatable and rapidly transforms the customer experience for national-level retailers. The solution achieved with Viva Energy was featured at a Microsoft Ignite session in November last year. 

Retail’s Big Show is an annual event held by the National Retail Federation which is the peak body representing retail in the United States (an industry contributing $5.3 trillion to the nation’s annual GDP). Over 39,500 retail industry related professionals are attending, 30 percent of whom are from overseas. 

From interactive sessions to cutting-edge exhibitions, every experience at Retail’s Big Show is designed to be a game changer for attendees. There are over 175 sessions providing attendees the inside scoop on future industry trends, unexpected business strategies, innovative technology and more. The three-day experience brings together industry visionaries to tackle retail’s biggest topics and forecast what’s next. 

Joining Alan to provide attendees with an inside scoop on the latest AI solutions which are already enabling businesses to transform are Lenovo’s Alan Rabinovich, WW ThinkEdge Business Leader, Microsoft’s Keith Mercier, Vice President WW Retail & CG Industry, and Intel Corporation’s Mariya Zorotovich, General Manager, Consumer Industries. 

NRF2025 Session Details: 

The Future of AI in retail

Tuesday, January 14 | 11:30am – 12:30pm AST 

The future of AI is at the Edge, where data generation is booming. As more data is generated at the Edge, it’s essential to equip our customers and partners with the right solutions to help their businesses thrive. Sustainability, environmental, form factor, security, flexibility, management, and ruggedness are key factors to the success of implementing AI at the Edge. With Viva Energy, LAB³, Lenovo, Intel and Microsoft “The Art of Possible is at The Edge” Let’s innovate together! 

Register for the session