How is the bedding industry making the most of AI?
Ben Rodier, left, FrontlineIQ; R.J. Williams, Jacksonville Bedding Mattresses & More; Toby Konetzny, South Bay International; and Shaun Pennington, Diamond Mattress.
Thomas Lester //Retail Editor//May 22, 2026
CHARLOTTE HARBOR, Fla. — As most people become more familiar and comfortable using artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily lives, it’s no surprise that the bedding industry is following suit.
From service providers to manufacturers and retailers, leaders in the industry have discovered hacks to hand off some of the more mundane aspects of the job while finding new and innovative ways to do business.
A panel at Furniture Today’s Sleep NXT conference at the Sunseeker Resort here talked about what they’re doing to tame this new frontier. Moderated by Executive Editor Sheila Long O’Mara, the panel included RJ Williams, co-owner of Jacksonville Bedding Mattresses & More; Toby Konetzny, CEO of South Bay International; Ben Rodier, CEO of FrontlineIQ; and Shaun Pennington, CEO of Diamond Mattress.
Pennington said that Diamond Mattress is using several large language models (LLM) because each has specialties. He cited one area where Claude stands out.
“Claude builds things, where ChatGPT gives you great content. It’s good for image creation,” Pennington said. “If we were going to do an ideation around like design and looks, ChatGPT is great and does great with images, but when you want to build out a spreadsheet, do an executive review, polish it up and have it filter out tons of data for you and actually create the review, (Claude will) create everything inside of Excel and format it . (It) saves you so much time. It also will create PowerPoints for you.”
And while the LLMs can change the way any business operates, it’s important to learn how to best use them.
“We’re so used to using Google search and typing a few words. When you use prompts, it can be a paragraph, everything that’s on your mind,” Konetzny said. “Chuck it in the same prompt, and it will figure out the right order. Teach it what you’re looking for.”
On the retail level, Williams said using AI applications has been a “game changer.”
“Previously, we worked at the speed of ideas,” he said. “Now we work at the speed of implementation and execution. It’s unlimited the resources that are available to you.
“We analyze Google reviews, what customers are saying and use that to our advantage. We analyze the competition, their promos and reviews, and how we can use that to our advantage. Sales training, marketing. Things that would have taken days and months now take minutes,” Williams continued.
FrontlineIQ’s main feature is an AI sales coach to help boost team performance through goal setting. Rodier said once retailers and their sales associates embrace the program, the results generally follow quickly.
“We have a very clear separation of AI sales coaching for those that are being positively impacted,” Rodier said. “And for those that aren’t leaning into it, you could literally see the difference.
“We talk about this a lot. Once you reach a certain point of using the AI sales coach, you can see that people who hit (a certain number of sessions), their sales increase. We’ve seen the latest trend is $2,100 per sales associate per week in more sales than they had from before the tool launched.”
Konetzny said as more consumers use AI, it’s vital that RSAs do it as well to keep pace and to show those consumers that they know what they’re talking about.
“Mattresses, furniture in general is an emotional purchase. People go into a store for an experience. They expect the RSA to be extremely knowledgeable and for them to share their sleep issue and for a solution,” he said.
“The key aspect for retailers is for using any sort of AI tool as a validation that the RSA knows what they’re talking about and providing the consumer a level of confidence.”
Share this!
Leaders in the industry have discovered hacks to hand off so[…]
May 22, 2026
Retailers who think artificial intelligence is just another […]
May 19, 2026
After launching as a consumer-facing design platform, Palazz[…]
May 11, 2026
AiPRL has launched an operating system created to help local[…]
May 5, 2026
The idea is simple: using data — your behavior, habits, in[…]
April 29, 2026
Dovr’s AI Readiness Score aims to assess furniture retailers[…]
April 21, 2026
Signup for your daily digest of industry news and trends.
Furniture Today is the complete information source for the furniture industry featuring retailer and manufacturing news, plus product trends and market analysis.
Sign up to get exclusive industry information delivered to your inbox.
© 2026 BridgeTower Media. All rights reserved.
Use of this website is subject to its Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell My Info/Cookie Policy
Already have an account? Sign In
Please enter your username or email address, you will receive a link to create a new password via email.
This website uses cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags, software development kits, and related tracking technologies, as described in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, for purposes that may include website operation, analytics, analyzing site usage, enhancing site navigation optimizing a user’s experience, and third-party advertising or marketing purposes. Through these technologies, we and certain third parties may automatically collect information about your interactions with our website, such as your browsing behavior and page views. We also may share this information about your activity on our website with our social media, advertising, analytics, and other business partners. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of these technologies and that we can share information about your activity on our website with third parties in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. If you do not agree with our use of non-essential tracking technologies, please click “Reject All.” You may opt out of certain non-essential technologies by clicking “Cookie Settings.”