Puma’s AI head says the brand is still giving ‘the keys to the consumer’ as it invests in tech like a digital concierge

Store of the Future // April 15, 2026 Puma’s AI head says the brand is still giving ‘the keys to the consumer’ as it invests in tech like a digital concierge By Julia Waldow As Puma looks to return to growth, it’s also embracing the latest technology.

The nearly 80-year-old brand is diving headfirst into artificial intelligence, a few years after it launched a Roblox experience and tested out NFTs and Web3 programs. Most recently, on April 13, Puma debuted a new AI-powered “digital human” concierge named “Dylan” in its Las Vegas flagship.

“Dylan,” who appears on a seven-foot-tall screen, can speak more than 100 languages, recommend products and answer customers’ questions. Puma is also gearing up to announce the winning design from its AI jersey contest, held two years ago in partnership with football club Manchester City.

The man powering Puma’s AI initiatives — Ivan Dashkov — is excited to test out different ways to use AI. But he also knows that some consumers are more hesitant to adopt the technology. “I think we’re doing a better job recently, of being able to show people tools and get them excited about it,” he told Modern Retail.

“I think that’s always a challenge: how to get everybody going in the same direction with AI and see it as a positive.” Puma is in the midst of another turnaround effort, more broadly. The company reported a loss from continuing operations of €643. 6 million for 2025, down from a profit of €280. 7 million the year before.

In a recent letter, CEO Arthur Hoeld acknowledged that the brand had “become too commercial over the years.” “This is reflected in low brand heat, poor sales quality and a product range that did not cut through,” he continued.

In 2025, he said, “The aim is to establish Puma as a Top 3 sports brand worldwide, return to above industry growth and create healthy profits in the medium term.” Dashkov, Puma’s head of emerging marketing tech, sat down with Modern Retail to unpack the brand’s latest AI initiatives and what fans can expect in 2026.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How does your new AI store concierge work? “It’s a very large screen — I think it’s about seven feet tall — and there’s what appears to be a human inside. That human is powered by AI … [and] can talk about any product in the Puma store. He’s actually a specialist in our running product.

… He can double click into our different types of running shoes and what’s best for you, depending on your style of running, where you’re running and your goals for running.

But he knows every single other product in the Puma store, so he can point you to lifestyle products and basketball products and talk about those and the different technologies in those, as well. A great thing about him, too, is that he makes the store experience a little more inclusive, as well, because he can speak over 100 languages.

So, if somebody comes in from France and wants to have a conversation with a store associate, but one of our associates doesn’t speak French, they’ll still have that opportunity to have that interaction with the digital human. … [The concierge] also calls into our inventory API, so it knows what’s in the store and how many of each size is left.

So, when a consumer is asking for a specific size, he can say, ‘We do have a size nine-and-a-half. I’ll bring that right out to you.’ This is a project we’ve been working on for probably about a year now. We’ve worked really closely with Nvidia and a company in their portfolio called LiveX, … and we tested this in our office for the last three months.”

What did the testing process look like? “In our office, we have an employee store, so we set [the concierge] up next to that store. We got really great feedback. Some of the best feedback we got is that — and this is going to sound silly — it’s not creepy.

A lot of these AI interactions that [people] have still feel a little off, but this one feels organic and natural. Another piece of feedback I got from one of my friends at work was, ‘Hey, I’m a little introverted, so I like having this other option of being able to talk to a digital person.’ That was an interesting piece of feedback that I wasn’t expecting.

But it’s important to give consumers different ways to interact with our brand. And some people might prefer going this route, versus a different route.” I’m curious: Do any of your store employees have any reservations about co-existing with the digital human? “We did a couple of site visits, … and all the feedback from the store employees has been posi