Kyle Montgomery, a commerce lead at Astound Digital and co-founder of AI-first gifting startup Generous, has become a Commerce Trailblazer within the Commerce Crew, a Salesforce community now 10,000+ members strong (Salesforce Commerce Blog). The Commerce Crew connects pioneers, advocates, and leaders through an online Slack and GitHub community dedicated to helping commerce practitioners share ideas and build skills in commerce technology.
Montgomery breaks agentic commerce into three clear buckets for small businesses: off-site agents (AI-powered answer engines and generative search where consumers already shop), on-site agents (owned agentic experiences on your storefront using tools like Salesforce Agentforce), and back-office agents (AI-assisted development and operations) (Salesforce Commerce Blog). At Astound, his team reports 30% faster implementation times and lower costs using AI software development lifecycle approaches. His strategic advice to small businesses is to start with off-site optimization—which is happening regardless—then build toward on-site and back-office capabilities as comfort with the technology grows.
Montgomery's own startup, Generous, exemplifies this AI-first approach: it uses Claude and cloud-based coding tools to build an AI agent that helps users find gifts by describing the recipient's interests, then completes purchases without leaving the agentic experience (Salesforce Commerce Blog). His broader advice for commerce leaders is to lean in, experiment within security guidelines, and share learnings—successful or not—because community and peer learning are essential to keeping pace with rapid AI change.