Tillys board director Mike Relich on the AI business case a retail board of directors will approve.

Save $100,000 a year writing product descriptions, or cut $10 million of inventory. You can only fund one. Mike Relich, board director for Tillys, puts that question to every retail leader building with AI, and he says too many still pick the product descriptions.

Recorded live at RetailClub in Huntington Beach, this episode focuses on one leadership skill: working with your board of directors, especially when the ask is AI. Mike has sat on both sides of that table. He asked boards for capital as a CIO and CEO, and now he decides who gets it. Ricardo and Casey ask him what a retail board of directors needs to hear before it funds an AI project.

What You’ll Learn

• Why so many retail boards think AI means ChatGPT, and why educating them is management's job
• The $100K vs. $10M question, and why inventory is retail's biggest use of working capital
• The metrics Mike wants in every AI business case - sales, margin, markdowns, labor efficiency, and shrink
• How Reddit complaints end up in what the LLMs say about your brand
• Mike's pilot test: defined KPIs, the real total cost of ownership, and why free vendor pilots mislead
• Why he won't approve an AI project that IT owns
• What to call your data infrastructure project so the board doesn't turn it down
• Mike's four-part, plain-English AI primer for a board of directors

👉 Stay Sharp. Lead Boldly. Stay Human.

Brought to You By Retail Agent Con - November 17, 2026

Explore how AI agents fit into retail work at Retail Agent Con, a live virtual event on November 17, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern, produced by IHL Group with ClearSight AI.

Join retail leaders from Tractor Supply, David’s Bridal, Artisan Lane Furniture and Dr. Janet Sherlock on the org changes required for agents and humans to work together. Plus analysts from IHL Group and Retail Razor for practical conversations about agents in merchandising, order management, inventory control, store systems, and more.

Retailers attend free, sponsorships and individual tickets are available.

Learn more: www.retailagentcon.com.

Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/

Newsletter: https://newsletter.retailrazor.com/

YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube

Guest Spotlight.

Mike Relich. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-relich-7395b01/

Non-Executive Board Member. Tillys. https://www.tillys.com

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Swag, Tag and Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.