This past April, Newtide CEO Vlad Collak took the stage in Myrtle Beach to talk about what AI actually means for fuel and convenience operators, and what it’s going to take to lead.
Every April, the North Carolina Petroleum & Convenience Marketers, better known as NCPCM, brings together operators, marketers, and industry leaders for their annual Management Institute. NCPCM represents more than 200 marketer and convenience store members across North Carolina, covering roughly 50,000 employees and more than 3,000 retail outlets. From gas and coffee to heating oil, propane, and lubricants for heavy industry, NCPCM members keep North Carolina running.
This year’s event ran in late April in Myrtle Beach, built as a working seminar for professionals across the petroleum and convenience industry. It brought leaders together to talk through the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping where fuel and convenience go next.
We were proud to be part of it. Vlad spoke, and his message was direct: most companies are still treating AI as a smarter version of the software they already own. He sees that as a missed opportunity. The companies that grasp what’s actually changing are going to pull away from the ones that don’t, and that gap is going to widen fast.
“The question isn’t whether to engage with AI — it’s whether you’re leading it or chasing it.” — CSP Industry Survey, 2026
The real shift
Three in four fuel and convenience retailers are already exploring AI. Most are approaching it as a new piece of software rather than a change in how the work itself gets done. Under the old model, people do the work and use software to react to what already happened. Under the new one, AI agents run entire workflows on their own, start to finish, before anyone asks them to.
Collak described this as the move from tools to digital workers. These agents don’t stop at answering questions. They take action, hold onto what they’ve learned, set real outcomes in motion, and keep working around the clock without tiring.
The capability staircase
- Level 1, Automation. Rules-based reports and triggered alerts. This is where most companies sit today.
- Level 2, Intelligence. Predictive models, pricing suggestions, data-driven chatbots.
- The frontier, Agency. AI that acts on its own, runs a full workflow, and reports back when it’s done.
The reality check
None of it works without clean, connected data. Price books, loyalty data, integrated systems: that’s the foundation. A powerful AI model wired into siloed, incomplete data still can’t do its job. And “everyone is using AI” is not a strategy.
Collak’s advice to the room was straightforward. Define your objectives before anything else. Pick a small number of high-value use cases where the data is actually within reach. And bring your people along early.
Let’s keep the conversation going
Events like the NCPCM Management Institute are why we show up. The room was full of sharp operators who already know what they want and are ready to move on it.