Every NACS Show offers clear reminders of how quickly the fuel and convenience industry continues to evolve. We asked several PDI experts to share some of the biggest changes they’ve witnessed in the convenience channel, along with some trends and predictions for 2026.
Watch videos from PDI experts, or continue reading for highlights and key takeaways.
Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis for GasBuddy
“One recent trend we’re seeing at GasBuddy is some of the lowest fuel prices in years. The national average could fall below $3 a gallon and stay there for much of the rest of 2025 and into early 2026. Americans are enjoying some of the lowest prices since the pandemic. In fact, some gas stations in areas like Oklahoma could fall below the $2 gallon mark by the end of 2025.
One big change in the industry I’ve seen over time is that selling gas used to be very cutthroat, very competitive. Lately, I’ve seen really stable margins, and new trends such as personalized pricing have really changed the game. The price you see on the sign is not necessarily what everyone’s paying. Almost everyone’s probably paying a different price, depending on how they pay. Loyalty has become a huge game-changer in the industry, and almost nobody pays that retail price anymore.”
Jim Cornette, Director, Sales
“The biggest change in the industry is pretty much technology. In the 1990s, companies were asking, how do I get a back-office system? Do I put a pricebook in or do I scan? What am I going to do with all that data?
More recently, the ability to monetize data is probably the coolest thing I’ve seen. This industry is really well suited for innovation because it’s dominated by two kinds of businesses—family-run businesses that can change on a whim, and corporations that can fund big jobs.
Looking forward, I think there’s going to be more automation. Automation has gone from clerical automation to strategic automation. Retail site management and electronic shelf labels will be a big part of that future, and there will be more data sold for various purposes. MyPDI is also a great example of what’s coming next.”
Mark Evans, VP of Fuel Pricing and Logistics
“Over the years, the use of technology has changed a lot across the global fuel market. We implemented our first fuel pricing system in 1995 in the UK. It would respond with simple, rules-based algorithms.
We’ve been using AI more and more to take into account things like sales, cost of product prices, and site characteristics. There’s also machine learning-based demand forecasting. How can customers measure the impact of any changes and use data insights to produce reporting summaries faster and suggest actions to take? We’re using AI to help them respond much quicker to data and determine whether they’re making the right decisions in their day-to-day business.”
Jeff Hassman, VP of Strategy for Brands and Consumers
“AI is going to be a transformative technology for convenience. In most companies, AI is being used to help employees be more efficient at their jobs. The next step is to have AI actually take over 10 tasks currently being done by humans and automate those workflows so the human can supervise while the AI agent does the work.
Our new platform MyPDI is all about taking point software solutions in this industry and converging them into a unified platform that makes it easier for convenience retailers to operate their businesses and compete with QSRs and dollar stores.
Initially for MyPDI, we’re going to focus on analytics and reporting to help retailers and wholesalers—using AI on top of analytics to make better business decisions. I suspect some retailers will just want the toolkit to build their own agentic AI workflows, but some will want pre-built AI workflows so they can focus on operating their business.”
Brian Lind, VP of Product Strategy and Partnerships
“The growth of mobile has been a major change in the convenience channel. How we interact with our phones and interact in the store has really evolved since 2014, which was around the time of the iPhone 6. In addition, COVID happened, along with QR codes and other things like that.
The industry has really evolved in the past 10 years, so now it’s normal for me as a consumer to open my mobile app when I’m thinking about that convenience store or going to get a salty snack. And so the opportunity to send a push notification or an email to me as a consumer because it’s the right time and right moment is actually a viable technology for retailers.”
Luis de Montes, VP of Sales for Latin America
“Two decades ago, convenience wasn’t really even a concept in some areas. Obviously in the US, it has grown more than in other places. But if you look at regions like Latin America, where I focus, there wasn’t even a c-store as we know them today. You had fuel stations, which were fairly grubby. People just went there, put fuel in, and that was it.
Since then, the whole market has really exploded. For example, the market in Argentina very recently went from being one key player that set the fuel price and everybody else had to follow by pricing a lot more intelligently and changing it more than once a day. A customer of ours who uses our fuel pricing software with optimization is able to better react to the changes in the market. AI is playing a key role in that.”
Doug Matthews, VP of Global Solution Engineering
“The most important thing in cybersecurity for the industry today is awareness at the employee level. You can have the best security protections, the best firewalls, and the best intrusion detection, but if your employees click on a suspicious email, then everything gets right past all your safeguards.
AI is like any tool. The bad guys are absolutely using it. The good news is that we’re ahead of them and using AI to filter through the noise of 100,000 events to find the three events that matter. AI is much faster than human beings trying to scroll through logs, so we’ve been leveraging it heavily in alerting, diagnostics, and forensics.
Another big trend is that independent operators, chain retailers, and branded oils now look to vendors to get all kinds of things as a service so they can focus on delighting their guests and driving the highest margins without having to build everything themselves.”
Reema Mansukhani, Senior Sales Executive
“I’ve only been in the convenience industry a few years, so there are a lot of nuances that I didn’t realize. I didn’t know how much actually went into retail operations and all of the products and solutions that need to come together to help a retailer operate.
It’s constantly evolving, so I really love how companies are open to using technologies like advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize their business. The industry is all about technology, technology, technology. Everyone is embracing technology, which is phenomenal. You always want to do more with less and figure out how to be most cost-effective. Finding the right technology and partner is huge for being successful.”
Alvin Prasla, Director, Sales
“A key trend for independent operators is to streamline a lot of their day-to-day processes, so they can focus more on selling to customers rather than worrying about the back-office stuff. C-store owners don’t have time to manage everything, so they need a solution for areas like live inventory and lottery management.
Going forward, operators can increase operational efficiency by keeping better track of their most expensive items, such as cigarettes and beer. That will definitely increase margins. As we see brands forming partnerships with independent chain store operators, increasing foodservice is definitely a plus. Having a good foodservice item, a deli, or even a sandwich shop entices people to come into your store and spend more.”
To learn more, watch our videos about industry trends and changes.
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