Weekly digest
Omio and DoorDash are leading a wave of conversational AI integration in commerce, with Omio leveraging OpenAI to build a travel commerce platform and DoorDash launching its Ask DoorDash shopping assistant. These deployments signal broader industry momentum toward AI-powered conversational interfaces that streamline the customer journey from discovery to purchase.
Salesforce and Bloomreach are advancing AI-driven personalization through new platform capabilities—Salesforce's Storefront Next and Commerce Apps framework enable B2C merchants to deliver tailored experiences, while Bloomreach's dynamic email content shifts personalization logic to message open time for improved relevance. These innovations reflect a shift from static segmentation to real-time, context-aware customer engagement.
Major retailers including Ulta, Stitch Fix, and Tapestry are embedding AI agents into omnichannel strategies, integrating loyalty programs and customer data across touchpoints, while Retailgentic's product-level context mapping approach enables more granular agentic commerce decisions. This trend demonstrates how AI agents are becoming central to unified retail experiences that span online and offline channels.
Shopify, Adobe, and Adyen have launched agentic commerce tools alongside Retailgentic's RetailPlaybook channel, creating a new category of platform features designed specifically for autonomous retail operations. These tools standardize AI agent deployment across merchant bases, accelerating adoption of autonomous commerce capabilities.
Salesforce expanded its AI agent offerings for B2B and B2C ecommerce while retail executives publicly debate appropriate guardrails, reflecting industry recognition that AI agents require governance to protect sensitive operations. The conversation centers on which customer-facing and back-office functions should be automated versus human-controlled.
Merkle's data reveals a critical gap in retail AI value realization: while 88% of retailers have deployed AI, only 6% can demonstrate ROI, a disparity highlighted by Bing's expanded Performance Report metrics aimed at improving measurement visibility. This widening adoption-to-impact gap underscores the challenge retailers face in translating AI investments into quantifiable business outcomes.
McKinsey's AI Flywheel strategy and emerging reports of AI agents handling merchant tasks like inventory management and vendor negotiation indicate that automation is extending deep into operational workflows beyond customer-facing functions. These backend automations promise efficiency gains but require merchants to redesign processes for human-AI collaboration.
Affiliate publishers face pressure to innovate in response to AI-driven traffic shifts, as AI tools increasingly handle discovery and purchase tasks that traditionally drove affiliate referral value. Publishers must adapt by creating differentiated content and leveraging AI themselves to remain relevant in an AI-reshaped traffic ecosystem.