Momentum 2026: The Agentic Era Comes to Life in Las Vegas

Across two days of keynote sessions, customer panels, technology demonstrations, and leadership discussions in Las Vegas, customers, partners, analysts, and industry leaders gathered around two clear themes.

First, businesses are no longer preparing for the AI era - they are already deploying it. Secondly, AI only creates meaningful business value when paired with operational alignment and human ingenuity.

AI + Unification + Human Ingenuity = Success

Opening the conference, CEO Eric Clark emphasised both the scale of the Manhattan ecosystem and the urgency facing modern commerce.

“These supply chains and storefronts power more than three trillion dollars of global commerce. If this community were a country, it would rank among the ten largest economies on Earth.”

Clark highlighted how businesses are operating in an environment defined by constant disruption, rising customer expectations, and accelerating technology complexity and economic volatility; arguing that fragmented systems can no longer support modern supply chains and commerce operations.

One of the event’s defining quotes came early in his keynote, underlining the powerful nexus of components required to succeed today.

“AI plus unification and human ingenuity. That is the answer.”

That theme echoed throughout the conference where leaders repeatedly stressed that AI cannot succeed without unified systems, trusted data, and strong governance.

Clark also revealed that Manhattan’s new agentic AI capabilities are already helping reduce implementation timelines by up to 50 percent, demonstrating the practical operational value customers are beginning to realise.

Software That Adapts to People

Chief Technology Officer, Sanjeev Siotia delivered one of the conference’s most forward-looking presentations, centred on how enterprise software is evolving in the AI era.

“For decades, humans were forced to adapt to the software. The future belongs to software that adapts to us.”

Siotia introduced two major innovations: Solution Design Studio™ and Manhattan Marketplace™. Solution Design Studio allows organisations to configure complex supply chain environments using natural language instead of traditional technical interfaces, dramatically simplifying implementation and collaboration.

Meanwhile, Manhattan Marketplace expands the ecosystem around AgentFoundry™, enabling customers and partners to discover and deploy intelligent agents and extensions running natively on ActivePlatform™.

Summarising the philosophy behind Manhattan’s AI strategy, Siotia said:

“Humans define the what. Machines generate the how.”

AI in Action: From Theory to Practice

Momentum 2026 focused heavily on real-world customer outcomes rather than theoretical AI concepts. Before the conference officially began, more than 100 customers attended Manhattan’s Active AI Bootcamp to build and deploy ActiveAgents™ in hands-on workshops.

Customer stories throughout the conference reinforced how organisations are already using intelligent automation across supply chains, stores, fulfilment, and transportation networks.

One standout example came from Giant Eagle’s Zack Saylor, Director of Supply Chain Technology, who explained how the company’s Wave Coordinator Agent is improving visibility and decision-making in highly time-sensitive grocery operations.

“In the grocery industry we’re shipping and receiving 75% of our products the same day, especially our produce buildings. This agent allows us to make sure we have the right product in the right place at the right time.”

The example illustrated the growing role of AI in solving immediate operational challenges where accuracy, speed, and responsiveness directly impact performance.

Unified Commerce Comes of Age

Day two shifted focus toward unified commerce and intelligent customer experiences. Manhattan Chief Marketing Officer, Katie Foote led discussions with executives from Arc'teryx, Vineyard Vines, and Belk around seamless omnichannel operations.

During the session, a recurring message emerged: customers no longer distinguish between physical and digital channels, meaning businesses must orchestrate inventory, fulfilment, and customer engagement through unified platforms.

Erin Harrington, VP of Business Transformation at Vineyard Vines, stressed the importance of reducing operational complexity so teams can focus on customer experience rather than systems management.

The takeaway? Unified commerce is no longer aspirational; it is now an operational reality for leading brands.

Building a Strong Foundation for AI

Google also played a prominent role in the conference, with Jared Skinner, Managing Director of Americas Retail at Google, joining Manhattan Chief Operating Officer, Greg Betz to discuss the foundations of successful AI adoption.

Skinner delivered one of the event’s clearest warnings about enterprise AI readiness:

“If you don’t have good data, you have bad AI.”

The discussion reinforced another major Momentum theme: organisations that already possess unified, contextualised data foundations are positioned to move faster and scale AI more effectively across the enterprise.

Leadership Still Matters

Despite the excitement surrounding automation and intelligent systems, Momentum consistently emphasised the importance of human leadership and adaptability.

Michelle Poler, author of Hello Fears, encouraged attendees to embrace uncertainty and move forward before feeling completely ready. Later, legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski closed day two with lessons on leadership, teamwork, standards, and sustained performance.

Krzyzewski emphasised the importance of what he called the ‘3As’: Adaptability, accountability, and attitude.

While technology may accelerate change, long-term success still depends on leadership, discipline, and operational alignment. “Talent opens opportunities. Standards create consistency, trust, and long-term performance under pressure.”

People Drive Transformation and Innovation

Closing the event, Clark returned to the core idea that defined Momentum 2026 from start to finish, reminding attendees that technology alone does not create differentiation.

“The technology to keep you one step ahead isn’t coming. It’s already here. What we’ve always been after is not smarter machines. It’s smarter organisations powered by people, unified by technology, accelerated by AI.”