'5 Questions' with Justin Honaman, Amazon Web Services Head of Worldwide Retail, Restaurants & Consumer Goods Business Development
- Swati Kundra
- Mar 3, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 3, 2025
Q1. AI is not new, but Gen AI is. How do you see GenAI transforming the retail and consumer goods space in the next few years?
AI is not new. In fact, it’s been around since the ’50s, and today, there are plenty of great use cases for it – like personalization, product recommendations on an e-commerce site, and forecasting. I mean, at Amazon, we even use it as part of how we run our supply chain. You would find good AI use cases on Amazon.com in terms of product recommendations and personalization. You would find it with our Alexa devices. What's different with generative AI is just some of the capabilities it unlocks – that's what's got everyone buzzing and talking, especially over the last two to three years.
And there are a couple of areas where generative AI is super powerful. One is customer experience, with virtual assistants, a new level of personalization, and well-crafted product titles, descriptions, and ad words.
In the creative space, for marketers, it's helping them create images and short-form videos, that's pretty powerful. And on the tech side, these models are great at coding, transforming code, and handling QA. There's so much happening there, which I think is interesting.
In spaces like sourcing and procurement, a lot is happening in terms of analyzing documents, processing content, and generating quick summaries and recommendations, and that's what's got everyone buzzing. And it's all moving very quickly.
New models are being released all the time, including from Amazon, along with a strong focus on the data and technology behind them.
Q2. What are the top three digital tech priorities transforming retail and consumer goods businesses?
Let's take retail first. I'll highlight a couple of things. First, most legacy retailers are moving to the cloud. They are trying to get out of their legacy data centres and moving to the cloud so they can take advantage of generative AI. Second, many of them are focused on the store and improving the in-store experience for customers through new engaging ways to connect with them. And third, there’s the e-commerce experience. As I mentioned earlier, personalization, new types of search, and new types of flexible commerce platforms are driving innovation. These are big focuses for retailers.
On the brand side, specifically in consumer goods, it’s a similar story. Many are moving to the cloud, while many are behind on their move to the cloud. They're just beginning to transition into that space.
We're also seeing a lot of modernization of their back-office systems, such as SAP. There's a strong focus on using technology in the supply chain for forecasting, inventory planning, inventory visibility, demand planning, and what not. Another key area of focus for consumer goods brands is pricing and trade execution in the marketplace. So there's been a lot of focus on that and how to use technology to better serve retailers and, ultimately, the consumer. So there are a couple of things that stand out on both the retail and consumer goods side.
Q3. How do digital-native brands differ from legacy brands in leveraging technology and their approach to business?
I love this question. By the way, in India, the startup community is incredible. And when you look beyond just that market to the broader consumer packaged goods space, a lot is happening, especially with food and beverage startups. Startups today are inherently digital-native. They don't have the technical debt that a major brand would have, so they can move faster. They're more nimble. They can try new things. They can test new flavours, and if something doesn't work, they can change those flavours.
They are typically launching, for example, in direct-to-consumer. They're working to get into some retail stores, and then they're looking to scale in retail over time. And so, we've seen that play out in many markets.
The technology that is most important for them includes, first of all, having flexible cloud technology for running the business. Second, using data to personalize the customer experience or better understand the customer to serve them more effectively. And third, as they scale and incorporate both direct-to-consumer and retail components, ensuring they have the right visibility and systems to manage inventory across these channels.
It is an exciting time to be in this space because right now, the market is hungry for innovation. Consumers are hungry for innovation, and the big brands are seeking new ways to innovate and grow.
Q4. Technology is reshaping supply chains in retail and consumer goods. Your thoughts.
If you rewind the clock two or three years, there were significant supply chain disruptions around the world, which then drove costs higher. So, if you are a maker of potato chips, beverages, or, quite frankly, any food product, you are sourcing materials from other countries and locations. This makes the supply chain for inputs significant. You want to keep those costs lower so that product prices remain affordable for consumers. That’s one key consideration. Another crucial aspect is delivery, route planning, and logistics – how you move products from the manufacturer to a retailer or directly to the customer. This part of the supply chain is equally important.
Whether you're in retail or consumer goods, the supply chain is a critical factor in cost considerations and ensuring a good customer experience. That’s why I’d say it should be near the top of the priority list for both retail companies and CPG brands.
AI absolutely is part of how companies do supply chain and execute on supply chain. Many of the big tech companies that enable the supply chain space now have AI built into their systems.
However, generative AI is relatively new in supply chain and manufacturing, and it sometimes struggle to retrieve information from multiple systems, consolidate it, and generate recommendations or solutions. That will change over time, but for now, traditional AI remains more prevalent in supply chain management.
Q5. What key leadership lessons have you learned when it comes to driving growth in a constantly evolving digital landscape?
It starts with the leader. The most successful organizations have a leader who's leaning into innovation and growth. They're open to trying new capabilities, technologies, and implementing new solutions. They have, quite literally, a go-to plan as part of their strategy to create a culture of innovation. They typically have some sort of way of looking at projects or managing a pipeline of opportunities. They also have teams dedicated to execution on the digital side and physical side of innovation, with defined metrics and goals to measure success. And that's exciting.
Also, leaders never check out on learning, regardless of how many years of experience they have or what their title and role might be. Being open to listening is a valuable quality, especially in leadership. As the phrase goes, leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say. Also, for those starting out in their professional life (or in life in general), you don’t need to be talking all the time. If you listen, you’ll pick up a lot and, over time, be able to deploy what you learn. That’s how you develop your brand – by taking good notes, asking great questions, and truly listening.
All of it combined is what sets great companies apart. And you can definitely tell. I mean, we work with the vast majority of retailers and consumer goods brands worldwide here at Amazon and Amazon Web Services. You can somewhat map them on a spectrum – those leaning in, moving faster, and fostering a digital culture of innovation versus those at risk of falling behind and becoming obsolete.
