Retail company with tons of data but no ML/AI — where do I start?

• I work at a retail company and we have tons of data, but the way it’s used is honestly very old-school. Most reporting is still Excel and Power BI Report Builder, and beyond standard reports, a lot of valuable data just goes unused.

I joined recently. I have ~2 years of experience before my master’s degree, and in my previous role (also retail-related) we worked on things like recommendation engines and more data-driven decision making. That experience really opened my eyes to what’s possible.

This company is worth around $2.6–$2.8 billion, yet they don’t really use ML or AI in any meaningful way for the business. No personalization, no advanced analytics—mostly just descriptive reporting.

Deep down, I really want to create impact using AI/ML, not just build reports. I’m especially fascinated by customer segmentation, but I’m not sure where to start in a company like this or how to move from “nice idea” to something that actually gets adopted.

For people who’ve been in similar situations:

• Where would you start to introduce ML/AI in a traditional retail org?
• What are some practical, low-risk use cases that can show value quickly?
• How do you go from being “the reporting person” to driving analytical change?

Would love advice from anyone who’s done this in a real business environment.