How AI Is Helping Retail Companies in Spain Cut Costs and Improve Efficiency

Introduction: Why AI matters for retail in Spain - Retailers in Spain can cut costs and boost efficiency by using AI where it actually touches customers and operations: conversational agents that handle bookings and FAQs in Spanish around the clock, smarter inventory and demand forecasting, and automated merchandising that keeps shelves stocked without over-ordering.

Tools like STELLA Spanish conversational AI feature already show how 24/7 Spanish‑language support converts missed calls into appointments, while industry surveys and how‑to guides on Prismetric's guide to AI in retail use cases map the clear ROI from forecasting, pricing and chatbot automation.

For retail teams ready to lead these pilots, practical training such as the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp teaches promptcraft and real-world AI workflows so staff can run pilots, evaluate savings, and turn a midnight Spanish booking into a repeat customer - without adding headcount.

Program	Length	Early-bird Cost	Register
AI Essentials for Work	15 Weeks	$3,582	Register for the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp

Energy management is a high‑impact place for retail teams in Spain to cut costs: AI that improves solar forecasting and optimises storage can reduce reliance on peak grid power, while IoT and edge analytics tame HVAC and lighting waste in stores and warehouses.

Spanish pilots show the gains - Spacewell's platform helped a Barcelona museum cut energy use by 35% and a large historic hospital by 28% - and city projects like Awesense's work for Endolla Barcelona used minute‑granularity EV charger analytics to smooth peaks and plan capacity.

On the supply side, large renewables players are already applying cloud data and ML to squeeze more life and revenue from assets: see the Capital Energy case study on using BigQuery, Vertex AI and fleet IoT to drive predictive maintenance and lower OPEX, and read a practical overview of AI for solar forecasting and storage optimisation in Europe at Tamesol.

For retailers, the “so what” is concrete - smarter forecasts, peak shaving and automated maintenance translate directly into lower electricity bills and fewer emergency service visits, freeing budget for customer experience rather than catch‑up repairs.

“We use these technologies to apply the power of AI to energy management so we can extend the lifespan of our assets, reduce operating costs, and maximize revenue from our industrial assets.” - Israel Devesa Cuevas, Capital Energy

Operational automation in Spain is already moving from pilot to practice - think self‑serve terminals, shelf sensors and entire frictionless stores - and the payoffs are concrete: faster checkouts, fewer manual errors, and staff time reclaimed for higher‑value customer service.

Areas' new On Your Way automated store at Adolfo Suárez Madrid‑Barajas uses AI computer vision plus weight sensors on each shelf to log selections and eliminate manual scanning, showing how travel‑retail can shrink transaction time and labour needs while keeping a curated offer for busy passengers (Areas press release: Madrid automated store).

Generative AI adds another layer: Oliver Wyman highlights that AI can automate routine tasks (40–60% of human tasks in scope), from smarter shift scheduling and predictive maintenance to AI “copilots” that answer routine queries and guide associates on store decisions (Oliver Wyman: How Generative AI Can Transform Retail Stores).

Back‑office platforms and integrated POS+inventory automation stitch those gains together so stores actually redeploy saved hours into merchandising and service rather than headcount - a practical route to lower costs and better customer experiences noted by automation studies (NetSuite: Retail automation benefits and strategies).

The memorable upside: a 30‑second contactless purchase at a busy airport now buys a store minutes of staff time to turn into a more attentive, revenue‑driving conversation with the next customer.

“This automated store is a further step in transforming the travel retail experience,” - Sergio Rodríguez, CEO of Areas Iberia

Spanish retailers are already harnessing AI to turn messy forecasting into measurable savings: regional chains like UVESCO have selected RELEX's AI-driven supply chain planning to optimise fresh‑product rotation, promotions and channel‑specific demand across 331 stores, seven distribution centres and more than 16,000 SKUs, cutting waste and smoothing replenishment cycles (RELEX supply chain planning for UVESCO case study).

Modern demand models go beyond old time‑series math by ingesting POS, IoT and sentiment signals in real time - so smart shelves, RFID and vision AI feed live stock data that let systems rebalance inventory and avoid costly stockouts or overstocks (vision AI retail inventory management).

Providers such as Sumo Analytics and Relevant Software show how AI improves forecast precision, automates store replenishment and frees working capital - examples report double‑digit gains in accuracy and faster, automated ordering that keeps stores lean and responsive (Relevant Software AI demand forecasting case study).

The practical payoff is simple: fewer markdowns, fewer emergency shipments, and more cash to invest in customer experience - imagine a morning delivery that's no longer a scramble but a predictable, optimised part of the plan.

“Sumo Analytics revolutionized our demand planning process. Their AI-powered forecasting technology made our inventory management much more precise, effectively reducing stockouts and freeing up significant capital. The results were impressive – a 38% improvement in forecast accuracy and a more profitable retail operation.” - Director of Operations, International Fashion Retailer, Spain

Spanish retailers that invest in personalization are finding that smarter, AI-driven marketing pays for itself: platforms such as Bloomreach are expanding local teams and bringing Loomi AI to Spain to power marketing automation, ecommerce search and conversational shopping for brands like Desigual and PUIG, which helps deliver relevant offers in Spanish at scale (Bloomreach expands presence in Spain and Italy).

Proven local wins show the lift - Retail Rocket's implementation for Devoraprecios quadrupled onsite conversion and generated a 282% bump in conversion with recommendation blocks, plus a 21.45% revenue increase and trigger‑email CTRs as high as 43.75% - a clear example of how personalization converts browsers into buyers without extra stores or staff (Devoraprecios conversion case study by Retail Rocket).

At a strategic level, Bain's research shows AI-powered, real‑time decision engines and generative models can boost return on ad spend by 10–25% and make one‑to‑one marketing feasible at scale, shifting spend from broad reach to precise, high‑value touches (Bain research on AI-powered retail personalization).

The “so what” is simple: better targeting and automated creative mean fewer wasted ads, higher AOV and more repeat customers - imagine a single smart recommendation turning a hesitant shopper into a loyal buyer within the span of an email.

“Our partners across the globe have always been instrumental to our growth, and Bloomreach's expanding presence in Spain and Italy is no different,” - Hugh Kimber, General Manager EMEA, Bloomreach

Technology‑enabled maintenance is a fast, practical lever for Spanish retailers to cut costs: Optimaretail's predictive maintenance service shows how AI and IoT can spot faults in HVAC, lighting, surveillance cameras, POS terminals, ventilation and automatic doors before they interrupt trade (Optimaretail predictive maintenance service for retail HVAC, lighting, and POS equipment); Sener's analysis of energy and AI in retail highlights that 90% of companies see energy efficiency as essential and that AI can actively tune lighting and HVAC to occupancy and daylight to lower bills (Sener analysis: energy efficiency and AI in retail).

Real‑world trend reports reinforce the return: maintenance research notes typical savings of 30–40% versus reactive upkeep as predictive analytics and edge monitoring move from pilot to production (Infraspeak maintenance trends and savings report).

The vivid payoff is simple and immediate - a camera or payment terminal flagged hours before failure keeps tills open and avoids emergency callouts - so stores spend less on repairs and energy and more on service and merchandising.

Metric	Source / Figure
Retailers who view energy efficiency as crucial	90% (GfK, cited by Sener)
Reported savings from predictive vs reactive maintenance	30–40% (Infraspeak summary)
Predictive maintenance use cases in stores	HVAC, lighting, cameras, POS, ventilation, automatic doors (Optimaretail)

Spain is building a practical public cloud for AI that retailers can tap into: Barcelona Supercomputing Center's MareNostrum 5 is a pre‑exascale system purpose‑built for AI, digital twins and large‑scale simulations, and the government's AI Strategy 2024 injects fresh capacity, training and funding so industry access isn't just academic.

MareNostrum 5 already delivers 314 petaflops with 248 PB of fast storage, and a €90M upgrade aims to push usable capacity toward and above 450 petaflops while reserving 20% of cycles for companies - meaning Spanish retailers can plan to run heavier forecasting models, multilingual ALIA language models and energy or supply‑chain simulations without building their own datacentre.

The practical upside is immediate: access to national compute and talent reduces the cost and lead time to pilot advanced ML, so a chain can test a high‑precision demand model on true large‑scale data rather than a toy dataset and move to production faster.

Learn more about MareNostrum 5's specifications on the Barcelona Supercomputing Center MareNostrum 5 system page MareNostrum 5 system specifications (BSC) and read the Spanish Government AI Strategy 2024 details in the BSC news release Spanish Government AI Strategy 2024 (BSC news).

Item	Figure / Commitment
Peak performance (current)	314 petaflops (MareNostrum 5)
Planned upgraded capacity	~450 petaflops (AI Strategy 2024)
Fast storage / archive	248 PB net + 402 PB tape archive
Industry allocation	20% of MareNostrum 5 capacity dedicated to industry
Targeted investment	€90 million to improve MareNostrum 5 and RES

“not only strengthens our technological infrastructure and innovation capabilities, but also ensures that the development of artificial intelligence in our country is carried out under the highest standards of sustainability and ethics. It is a step towards a more digitalised and competitive economy, where technology serves the well-being of all citizens.” - José Luis Escrivá, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration

Spanish retailers face a double challenge: promising cost savings from AI meet a tightening governance landscape and real skills gaps - security worries (42%), shortages of in‑house expertise (38%) and regulatory compliance (28%) top the list for enterprises trying to scale AI in Spain, according to sector surveys.

The national rulebook is evolving fast: Spain has an active AI regulator (AESIA), a Royal Decree sandbox for pilots and a Draft Spanish AI Law implementing the EU AI Act that scales duties to an AI system's risk level, so deployment choices determine compliance burdens (see the White & Case AI Watch Spain regulatory tracker).

Enforcement is material - proposed Spanish penalties mirror EU thresholds, with infringements potentially attracting fines up to €35 million or a percentage of global turnover - a single unreported incident or mislabelled deepfake can therefore cost millions and stall a rollout (read the recent summary of the proposed bill Linklaters TechInsights summary of Spain's proposed AI bill and fines).

The practical takeaway for retailers: embed clear governance (risk‑based documentation, MLOps audits, legal and data‑protection signoffs), partner with regulators via sandboxes, and invest in internal audit and training so AI reduces costs - not creates new legal and operational ones.

Issue	Figure / Detail
Security concerns	42% (UST survey)
Shortage of in‑house AI expertise	38% (UST survey)
Regulatory compliance concern	28% (UST survey)
Draft Spanish AI Law	Approved by Council of Ministers on 11 March 2025 (implements EU AI Act)
AESIA / Sandbox	AESIA operational since June 2024; RD Sandbox in force (industry testing)
Penalties for serious infringements	Up to €35M or 7% of worldwide turnover; Spanish draft: €7.5M–€35M or 2%–7% turnover

For Spanish retailers aiming to cut costs with AI, pick a few high‑impact pilots (conversational agents, WMS or demand‑forecast models, and predictive maintenance) that have clear KPIs, measure baseline costs and run short, data‑driven sprints; partner early with local integrators and platforms - Sermicro's exclusive DRUID alliance shows how managed conversational and agentic AI can scale securely and cut operational costs by up to 30% - and pair vendors with in‑house champions so savings flow to service and merchandising, not headcount.

Shore up skills through pragmatic partnerships with universities and bootcamps and focus on role‑based training (Cognizant recommends collaborations with educational institutions and startups to close talent gaps), while using national resources and Spanish‑language models where possible - the IBM–Spain MoU signals growing access to native Spanish LLMs and public compute that reduce pilot time and infrastructure spend.

Don't skip governance: build documentation, privacy controls and AESIA/GDPR‑aligned review gates into each pilot to avoid regulatory risk, and prioritise solutions that improve measurable metrics (inventory turns, energy bills, labour hours) so wins compound.

The practical rule: start targeted, measure tightly, use local partners for rapid scale, and reinvest verified savings into customer experience to lock in the “so what” of every project.

Metric	Figure / Source
Spanish firms wanting to accelerate Gen AI	73% (Cognizant)
Average projected spend per company (Spain)	$23.5M vs global $47M (Cognizant)
Operational cost reduction via agentic/hyper‑automation	Up to 30% (DRUID / Sermicro)

“AI positions us at the threshold of a new industrial revolution, with a very significant potential impact in terms of productivity gains for a large number of economic sectors.” - José Luis Escrivá, Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service (IBM)

Spanish retail leaders hunting for practical proof points will find clear datapoints and short case signals in recent Cognizant research and retail briefings: Spain reports strong interest in generative AI (73% of firms want to accelerate initiatives) despite lower per‑company spend (€≈$23.5M vs a $47M global benchmark), national backing for compute and models (a €1.5B push and access to MareNostrum 5 at 314 petaflops), and sector examples showing how gen‑AI boosts forecasting, personalised commerce and service automation - areas Cognizant highlights as immediate impact zones for retail (commerce, marketing, customer service).

These sources also flag the usual inhibitors (talent, privacy and product maturity) and offer practical next steps - reskilling, pilot sprints and trusted vendor partnerships - that make it easier to translate pilots into measurable savings.

For a deep dive, read Cognizant's Spain study and their retail playbook on generative AI to map which pilots (conversational commerce, demand forecasting, procurement automation) should go first for Spanish chains.

Metric	Figure / Note	Source
Spanish firms wanting to accelerate Gen AI	73%	Cognizant report: Generative AI adoption in Spain
Average projected spend per company (Spain)	$23.5M vs global $47M	Cognizant report: Generative AI adoption in Spain
MareNostrum 5 peak performance	314 petaflops (industry access)	Cognizant report: Generative AI adoption in Spain
Priority retail impact areas	Commerce, marketing, customer service	Cognizant report: Generative AI disrupting retail

Spanish retailers ready to turn interest into impact should prioritise focused, measurable pilots - start with conversational agents, demand‑forecast micro‑experiments and predictive maintenance - so wins compound quickly and capital is freed for customer experience rather than catch‑up fixes; the Cognizant generative AI report shows 73% of Spanish firms want to accelerate Gen AI even if per‑company spend is lower (≈$23.5M vs $47M global), so lean pilots plus role‑based training make every euro go further (Cognizant report on generative AI adoption in Spain).

Use national compute and partners to scale successful pilots (MareNostrum 5 and local AI vendors) and embed tight governance from day one; combine this with pragmatic data work (cleaning, product‑level POS feeds) and staff reskilling - practical courses such as the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (promptcraft and AI workflows) teach promptcraft and AI workflows for non‑technical teams.

Finally, follow the Publicis Sapient playbook: run micro‑experiments, measure ROI, iterate fast - real pilots like Wasteless have cut food waste by ~32.7% in Spain, showing how a single targeted project can unlock meaningful savings and sustainability wins (Publicis Sapient generative AI retail use cases).

Metric	Figure / Source
Spanish firms wanting to accelerate Gen AI	73% (Cognizant)
Average projected spend per company (Spain)	$23.5M vs $47M global (Cognizant)
Wasteless pilot: retail food waste reduction	~32.7% (WEF)
MareNostrum 5 peak performance	314 petaflops (national compute access)

“If retailers aren't doing micro-experiments with generative AI, they will be left behind.” - Rakesh Ravuri, CTO, Publicis Sapient