Field notes from the
AI native store
The operations audit, guides and playbooks, and the Newsstand. Everything worth reading on building AI native retail, gathered in one place.
The diagnostic every operator should run
One field manual. Eighteen questions. A personalised report on where time is leaking and what would change on Karo.
The retail operations audit, the playbook
Eighteen questions every retail leader should answer before they look at a vendor demo. The honest field test for where time is leaking and what your stack is actually doing.
The Newsstand
Everything written about Karo, and by Karo. Articles from the floor, press features, and customer stories, filterable by type.
Your next customer is a bot.
Agents are starting to shop, compare, and check out on behalf of real people. What machine to machine CX means for retail, and why the friction you sell is about to become a cost you defend.
- AI in retail
- Customer experience
NewsLA Examiner: Karo's founder on AI and the future of middle management
LA Examiner's feature on the future of middle management quotes Karo founder Anik Devaughn on the rise of the creative architect, as AI takes over specialist roles and people move up.
- Operations
NewsTom's Hardware names Karo the lead one-person AI native company
Italian tech title Tom's Hardware profiles the rise of the company of one and puts Karo Commerce forward as the clearest example, built on AI native foundations.
- AI in retail
NewsKaro Commerce on AI agent security in GENZTECH
GENZTECH gathers practitioners on the OpenAI agent sandbox escape. Karo's founder gives the deployment-operator view, that the real threat is intent, not just code.
NewsInc names Karo a leading example of the one-person AI native company
Inc's feature on solo founders building real companies with AI puts Karo forward as a lead example, built with partners like Worldline and Visma and no separate design, content, or operations team.
- AI in retail
NewsKaro's founder explains the OpenAI agent breach in SWNS
When an OpenAI model broke out of its sandbox and reached another company, SWNS asked Karo's founder, who builds these agents, to explain how it could happen.
NewsKaro's founder bylines in Boss Moves Magazine
Karo's founder wrote a full byline in the July 2026 issue of Boss Moves Magazine, on what it takes to build and run an AI native company.
- AI in retail
NewsKaro's founder in TechBullion: design the company as the moat
In a TechBullion roundup on startup pivots, Karo's founder shares the turn that shaped the company, a decision made before a single line of code was written.
- Operations
NewsKaro's founder in TechBullion on AI native marketing
A TechBullion feature on AI in social media marketing highlights how Karo runs its entire marketing operation through one person and one AI persona.
- Customer experience
Choosing a POS partner is not the same as choosing a POS vendor
A POS vendor sells you a system. A POS partner shapes how your operation runs. Seven structural tests to tell them apart before you sign.
- POS strategy
- vendor-evaluation
AI native retail, what it is and why the next decade is built on it
A working definition of AI native retail, the five pillars that distinguish it from AI added retail, and why the company building the software is the one moat that cannot be copied.
- AI in retail
- Operations
AI native POS, the point of sale built for the next decade of retail
An AI native POS is a till with continuous AI awareness in the transaction layer itself, not a chat panel attached to a 2018 register. What that means, and how to evaluate it.
- POS strategy
- AI in retail
POS migration is a strategy decision, not a procurement task
A POS migration is the only window most retailers get to reset their operating model for the next decade. Done as a procurement project, it locks in the past. Done as a strategy decision, it unlocks an AI native operation.
- POS strategy
- Operations
Most SaaS is engineer first, Karo is design first
Engineer first means the manager learns the software. Design first means the software disappears. How Karo is built around the operator's task, not the database.
- AI in retail
- Operations
Three differences between AI added and AI native
AI added looks the same as AI native on the marketing page. Three concrete tests separate them before you sign a contract.
- AI in retail
- Operations
How an AI native team ships fixes on the same Saturday
Most SaaS support cycles measure response in days. The structure of an AI native team is what lets us measure ours in hours, on weekends, in production.
- Operations
- AI in retail
AI native is an organizational decision, not a feature flag
Most retail tech is bolting an AI tab onto a legacy product. That is not what AI native means.
- AI in retail
- Operations
AI native retail is not built in boardrooms, it is built on the floor
Most retail technology is built in offices that have never run a Saturday at peak. Karo started in the opposite place.
- AI in retail
- Operations
How AI moves retail from looking back to looking ahead
For decades, retail tech has been about reporting on yesterday. The AI native store turns that on its head.
- AI in retail
- Operations