The Human Edge, Amplified — with Tulsi Keshkamat (Microsoft Teams for Frontline)

What if the technology to transform your frontline already exists — and you're already paying for it?

In this episode of RETAIL IN AMERICA, sponsored by Microsoft, Ron Thurston sits down with Tulsi Keshkamat to unpack one of retail's biggest blind spots: the gap between what frontline technology can do and what most retailers realize they already have. Tulsi shares why Microsoft Teams is far more than a meetings-and-email tool for corporate, and how it's quietly becoming the operating system for the people who actually run the store floor.

The conversation moves from the practical to the profound — from cutting a store walkthrough's documentation time in half with voice-based checklists, to giving every frontline worker a "digital identity," to the bigger truth underneath it all: as AI and agentic commerce reshape retail, the human connection on the floor becomes more valuable, not less. Tulsi's design philosophy says it best — use technology for the mechanics, but leave the meaning untouched, and create more space for it.

For any retail leader weighing how to bring AI and digital tools to their frontline without losing the human core of the work, this is a roadmap — and a reminder of why the people closest to the customer matter more than ever.

In this episode:

• Why there's a massive "awareness gap" around frontline technology — and why many retailers already own the license
• How frontline workers deliver some of the fastest, clearest ROI of any tech investment
• The difference between deploying for big-box operations (inventory, labor) vs. luxury (the associate-customer relationship)
• How voice is removing the "heads-down" drudgery of store walkthroughs and checklists
• Why Teams acts as a platform that reduces the number of apps a frontline worker juggles — not adds to them
• The link between giving managers time back and frontline retention, career conversations, and pride in the work
• Where AI fits: handling the mechanics so humans can focus on judgment, connection, and meaning
• How to start: pick one or two use cases, pilot in a couple of stores, and scale from there

Resources mentioned:

• Microsoft Frontline sessions: aka.ms/frontlineFridays
• Contact the Teams Frontline team: TeamsFL_customer@microsoft.com

This episode is sponsored by Microsoft.

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This episode features a sponsored conversation with Microsoft. Product capabilities and outcomes may vary by organization, and not all results or claims discussed are guaranteed. Any references to features in preview or development are subject to change

The entire retail sales-training industry is built on scripts and closing techniques. Daria Tcherkachina threw both out — and built a career proving they were never the point.

In this episode, Daria and Ron make the case that customer service is the most underrated revenue strategy in retail, and that the human standing on your floor is the asset most businesses are quietly wasting.

Daria's 22 years span door-to-door sales, luxury floors at Harry Rosen, a bespoke suiting studio whose clients included Drake, and building Lighthouse Immersive's retail operation across 27 markets from scratch. She now runs PUBLC SERVICE.

What you'll hear:

• Why curiosity — not closing — is the glue holding her five-element framework together (Purpose, Presence, Connection, Curiosity, Care)
• Why "presence" is measurable, not a feeling: the sum of every operational decision made before the customer walks in
• The closed loop that quietly kills sales: businesses underinvest in training, staff feel undervalued, customers feel nothing, numbers suffer — each side waiting for the other to move first
• Her one Monday-morning shift for any leader: give your team individual purpose before every shift. "It costs nothing. It takes 60 seconds."

Find Daria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariatcherkachina/

The more we shop with algorithms and let AI agents shape our decisions, the more valuable one thing becomes: a human who actually knows how to sell. That is the thesis of Season 3 — and there is no better person to open the conversation than Ben Rodier.

Ben is the CEO and co-founder of FrontlineIQ.ai and a repeat entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience building sales technology, including his earlier company, Salesfloor. While many AI sales tools were designed for office-based B2B reps working from call transcripts, emails, and CRM data, FrontlineIQ was built for a different reality: B2C and field sellers who win or lose the customer in person, in real time.

In this conversation, Ron and Ben explore:

What the “coaching crisis” actually looks like on a Tuesday afternoon on a real sales floor.

Why the problem turned out to be far bigger than the category FrontlineIQ started in.

The honest version of where this technology works, where it does not, and what the skeptics get right.

What AI is revealing from real sales conversations about how top performers open differently than everyone else.

Whether the market is truly ready to pay a premium for human selling — or whether that idea is still wishful thinking.

This is a tactical, candid, and occasionally pointed conversation about the most human work left in business.

Disclosure: Ron recently joined FrontlineIQ as an advisor, which he discloses in the episode.