In Q4 I’m seeing enterprise retailers split category managers into supplier strategy vs data activation as AI line items eat 25% of next year’s budget. For those interviewing or hiring, are you weighting deeper market modeling and elasticity work over vendor wrangling, or is SQL/Looker/LLM fluency now the deciding edge for owning the shelf and P&L?
In my last Q4 hire, the edge was candidates who could ship a same-day “elasticity sanity check” in Looker: write the SQL for the last 12 weeks, exclude promo spikes, and use a lightweight LLM summary to prep the supplier call script. That moved P&L faster than pure vendor wrangling, though we still screened for someone who can negotiate data rights/trade funds so the model’s not starved. With AI at 25% next year, are you tying those wins back to GMROI in one dashboard so the shelf owner owns the narrative?
SQL for OOS forecasts + LLM co-pilot prompts; keep ‘25% AI’ ROI visible, but vendor terms still matter. @OP?
Given the 25% AI line, I bias data activation. @OP, require a 2-week ‘price-test SOP’ with SQL+LLM and P&L impact.