From Chatbot Novelty to Agentic Commerce Infrastructure
AI shopping assistants are conversational, task-oriented digital agents that help shoppers discover, compare, and buy products by combining natural language understanding with retailer-specific data and automated decision-making. These assistants are evolving from static chatbots into agentic commerce technology that can guide a customer from first query to checkout, and even post‑purchase support. Instead of requiring shoppers to click through endless menus, AI agents interpret intent, surface tailored options, and adapt in real time to changing needs, budgets, and contexts. For retailers, the promise is higher conversion and fewer abandoned carts; for customers, it is a smoother, more personalized path to purchase. Accenture estimates that by 2030, more than 30% of online commerce could run through AI agents, underlining how this technology is shifting from experiment to core infrastructure in modern retail.
Amazon’s Agentic Shopping Assistant Goes Beyond Its Own Store
Amazon Web Services is turning its in‑house AI commerce stack into a product with the AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant, bringing the Alexa for Shopping experience to external retailers. Built on the same technology that powered the assistant formerly known as Rufus, Amazon says this system generated nearly USD 12 billion (approx. RM55.2 billion) in incremental sales on Amazon.com last year. Retailers can deploy their own branded AI shopping assistants in about 60 days, with access to conversational recommendations tailored to their catalog and business rules. Amazon stresses that customers retain control of their data, inventory information, and merchandising logic, while still benefiting from a battle‑tested engine. An early use case is Kate Spade’s AI gift concierge, which chats with shoppers about occasions and style preferences before recommending products, highlighting how AI shopping assistants can act as guided discovery tools rather than passive search boxes.
Nosto and Shopify Sidekick Bring Agentic AI Inside the Back Office
While many AI shopping assistants face the consumer, Nosto’s work with Shopify Sidekick targets the people running ecommerce operations. Nosto’s Commerce Experience Platform now plugs directly into Shopify’s AI assistant so merchandisers can adjust recommendations and AI-powered personalization through conversational prompts, without leaving the admin environment. In a live demonstration with Shopify and Ford’s ecommerce partner Autonative, the team used Sidekick prompts to modify the design of Nosto-powered product recommendations on an accessories store, without calling developers or switching tools. This kind of agentic commerce technology collapses the gap between strategy and execution: a merchandiser describes the desired layout or targeting rule, and the system updates the experience in near real time. Nosto is also building Huginn, an AI agent that will provide technical guidance, proactive merchandising insights, and automated execution through an early access program, signalling how AI agents are becoming embedded in day‑to‑day retail workflows.
Kmart’s Joy Assistant Shows the Power of Virtual Try-On Retail
Kmart’s Joy AI assistant illustrates how AI shopping assistants can transform the browsing and decision phase with visual, interactive tools. Joy is a conversational guide available on the retailer’s website and app, connected to the full online range across multiple brands. Customers can describe what they need by size, style, color, and budget, then receive tailored suggestions in seconds, including side‑by‑side comparisons. Joy integrates virtual try-on retail features so shoppers can see how selected items may look, as well as a “See It in My Space” function that places furniture or décor into their own rooms. Shoppers can upload photos for even more specific recommendations, blurring the line between inspiration and practical fit checks. These capabilities are powered by Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, an agentic solution from Google Cloud that manages AI agents across the customer lifecycle from discovery to post‑purchase resolution.
AI-Powered Personalization Becomes Standard Retail Plumbing
Across Amazon, Nosto’s Shopify integrations, and Joy, a clear pattern is emerging: AI-powered personalization and agentic AI workflows are turning into standard retail plumbing rather than experimental add‑ons. Shoppers now expect conversational discovery, intelligent recommendations, virtual try-ons, and context‑aware assistance as part of normal ecommerce journeys. For retailers, the strategic question is less about whether to adopt AI shopping assistants and more about where to embed them—customer-facing, operational, or both. Agentic commerce technology also raises new competitive dynamics. AWS asks retailers to trust a cloud provider linked to a major marketplace, while platforms like Shopify and Google Cloud offer alternatives that keep control closer to merchants. As more transactions and merchandising decisions flow through AI agents, retailers will need to balance automation with transparency, ensuring that shopping journeys stay helpful, brand-aligned, and accountable.