Retail tech has made more data than ever before available to retailers, landlords, and investors – but sifting through and harnessing data and the platforms that provide them still requires a human element.

Panelists from retail tech companies, data platforms and brokerage alike at ICSC Western States this week agreed that "there's always going to be an element of intuition required," as Chris Lee from Placer.ai noted in the discussion.

"At Placer, we're aggregating data," Lee said. "If you can use data to understand patterns of people moving around, to understand how far they're commuting and things like that, you don't have to drive and see properties in 50 different markets.  You can pull that down to what's going to be a higher likelihood of success and focus on those options, because you have all this data at your fingertips."