The retail industry is evolving faster than ever, and traditional ecommerce strategies can’t keep up with rising consumer expectations. Shoppers now expect experiences that are personalized, seamless, and can anticipate what they are looking for. Today’s retail systems often fail to deliver on this expectation. Agentic commerce is the future of the retail industry. It combines AI-driven insights, real-time responses, and the ability for conversational searches to create a smarter, customer-centric experience.
What makes agentic commerce different?
At its core, agentic commerce is about giving shoppers intelligent shopping agents that understand their intent, preferences, and context. Unlike traditional search or recommendation systems that rely on past behavior, click streams, and keyword search, agentic commerce uses AI to anticipate shopper needs and deliver highly personalized recommendations, fast.
Think of it as having a personal shopping guide for every customer. A key piece of agentic commerce is its ability to understand intent. Whether someone is looking for a new gaming laptop for their daughter, supportive running shoes, or a birthday gift, an AI agent can analyze options and deliver recommendations without the manual effort of filtering through pages of site search results.
This shift is transformational. According to a Digital Commerce 360 report, 49% of respondents use AI tools at least once per month, and the same percentage are open to letting AI search for products and make purchases for them. Retailers that don’t jump on the AI train will be left in the dust. Their customers will quickly get frustrated with their search results and ultimately won’t convert on their website.
Why current retail models are falling short
Traditional site search has many shortcomings:
- Limited personalization: Most platforms recommend products based on past behavior, which doesn’t account for the evolving needs of the shopper.
- Solely keyword understanding: Keyword-based searches struggle with conversational queries or specialized requests.
- Data gap: Legacy site search doesn’t have enough data about each of their customers to truly understand the intent behind their searches
These gaps create friction for shoppers. They abandon their carts, aren’t satisfied with the website experience, and ultimately don’t make transactions.
How does agentic commerce benefit retailers?
Agentic commerce not only creates a better experience for customers. It also delivers measurable results for businesses:
- Higher conversions: Empowering shoppers to find exactly what they want quickly shortens the path to purchase.
- Improved customer engagement: Customers will feel understood and will be more likely to return to your site to make more purchases.
- Operational efficiency: Merchandising teams are freed to focus on higher-value tasks, instead of manually tagging products for keyword search.
- Competitive advantage: Many organizations are hesitant to adopt AI, but it isn’t going anywhere, and it’s growing rapidly. Retailers who optimize their sites with AI are going to outpace their competition.
Agentic commerce doesn’t just enhance the shopper’s experience but drives huge business impact.
The future of retail is agentic
AI is impacting almost every industry, and trends are becoming apparent:
- Consumer expectations are rising.
- AI adoption is accelerating.
- LLMs unlock huge amounts of data that allow businesses to scale exponentially.
The future of commerce won’t just be human. Machines and AI agents are quickly becoming a powerful customer segment. Gartner reports that
- By 2028, machine customers are expected to outnumber humans by nearly two to one
- Machine customers will be involved in trillions of dollars of purchases by 2030
- CEOs believe that by 2030, 15-20% of their company’s revenue will come from machine customers
- 20% of digital commerce sales will be conducted through GenAI platforms by 2030
Integrating AI into your retail experience isn’t just a cool new feature; it is essential to staying at the forefront of the next generation of shopping.
Now is the time to adopt agentic commerce
The future of retail is intelligent, personalized, and agentic. Agentic commerce highlights a fundamental shift in how consumers are interacting with brands, searching for products, and getting recommendations. Retailers that embrace AI will not only increase customer loyalty but also gain a competitive edge.
AI is setting expectations high, and agentic commerce is the way to deliver for your customers.
Want to learn about how agentic commerce can power your search? Schedule a demo today.