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LEIGHTON MEESTER O n Tuesday afternoon, Qihua Wang, Executive Vice President Strategy & AI, Lagardère Travel Retail, is participating in ‘TFWA C-Suite: The Innovator’s Agenda’ in the Agora, World of Innovation, in what promises to be a truly engaging discussion. “What we think AI can do in travel retail… and what it actually can do today are two very different things,” Wang shares. “The session is built around that gap. I’ll start by demystifying what is really changing right now with agentic AI. Not in a technical way, but in a very concrete, understandable way. The shift from tools you talk to, to systems that actually get things done behind the scenes. Then we’ll play with a few ‘real vs fantasy’ scenarios. What people expect AI to deliver versus what is realistically achievable in our industry, given how we operate and the data we have. And that’s where things become interesting, because the limitations are not where people think – it’s usually not the technology. I’ll keep some suspense for the audience. It will be a bit more fun than a traditional AI discussion.” AI is evolving rapidly across industries and Wang says we are at a very interesting stage in travel retail today. The technology is already quite advanced – in many cases, Lagardère on AI ’s next phase in trave l retai l QihuaWang, Executive Vice President Strategy &AI, Lagardère Travel Retail: “What we think AI can do in travel retail…andwhat it actually can do today are two very different things. The session is built around that gap.” it is already mature enough to deliver clear operational value – but the industry is still catching up in terms of adoption. “Companies in our industry have started pilots, proofs of concept, small experiments – but relatively limited scaling,” Wang explains. “And I don’t think it is because of lack of ambition. It comes from the nature of our industry. Travel retail operates in a very specific environment. You have fragmented ecosystems – airports, airlines, brands, retailers – each with their own systems, data, and priorities. At the same time, the customer relationship is very different from other sectors. We engage with travellers every day across our stores, but each interaction is typically short and contextual, with less continuity and customer data than in traditional retail. So we naturally have more constraints than classic retailers and e-commerce. And that means the challenge is less about technology – and more about how we adapt our operating model to make it work.” Looking ahead, Wang is eager to participate at TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference. “For me, it’s really about people. Everything we do comes back to people. How we connect, how we work together, how we build relationships. I just genuinely enjoy meeting our partners and friends in the industry, having real conversations, hearing different perspectives. That’s the part I like the most.” Monday 11 May 2026 13 T F W A D A I L Y