AI Shopping Assistants Become the New Front Door to E‑Commerce
An AI shopping assistant is a conversational, AI-powered tool embedded into retail websites or apps that helps customers discover, compare, and select products through natural language, personalized recommendations, and contextual guidance across the entire shopping journey. For retailers, these assistants sit at the intersection of search, service, and sales, promising higher conversion and deeper engagement without forcing shoppers to click through endless menus or filters. Instead, customers describe what they want in plain language, upload photos, or ask for ideas, while the AI interprets preferences, checks inventory, and responds in seconds. This shift is reshaping how online stores are designed: from static catalogs to interactive, agent-driven experiences that mimic an in-store associate. As more retailers adopt retail AI technology, the AI assistant is becoming the primary interface between brands and shoppers, and a critical battleground for competing with Amazon.
Amazon’s Agentic Shopping Assistant Opens Its Playbook to Competitors
Amazon Web Services is turning its own retail AI technology into a product for other retailers with the AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant. Built on the same system that powers Alexa for Shopping, this AI shopping assistant can talk to customers, answer detailed product questions, and give personalized recommendations tuned to each retailer’s inventory and brand rules. Amazon says its Alexa for Shopping assistant, formerly known as Rufus, drove nearly USD 12 billion (approx. RM55.2 billion) in incremental sales last year, a figure that shows how valuable AI-guided commerce can be. Retailers can deploy the AWS assistant in about 60 days, according to Amazon. Early adopters such as Kate Spade are already testing AI concierges that ask about the occasion, recipient, and style before suggesting products, signaling a broader move toward agentic experiences rather than simple search boxes.
Kmart’s Joy Turns AI into a Visual and Conversational Shopping Partner
Kmart is responding to this shift with Joy, its own AI shopping assistant built with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Joy sits inside Kmart’s website and app, where it powers virtual try-on shopping features and the “See It in My Space” function. Shoppers can see how clothing or selected products might look, or preview furniture and decor inside their homes before buying. Joy accepts natural language prompts such as size, style, color, and budget, then filters the catalog in seconds and serves personalized recommendations. Customers can also upload photos to receive tailored suggestions and compare items side by side, turning the assistant into a visual stylist and product guide. Joy spans Kmart’s online range, including products from Target and other marketplace brands, showing how retailers are using AI to unify large catalogs into a single, conversational experience.
Agentic Commerce and the High-Stakes Race for AI-Driven Sales
Behind these launches is a wider race to control what some call agentic commerce—the idea that AI agents will run a large share of online shopping. Accenture estimates that by 2030, more than 30% of online commerce could run through AI agents, representing about USD 3.1 trillion (approx. RM14.26 trillion) in transactions. That projection explains why Amazon is turning its internal AI into a cloud product and why retailers like Kmart are investing in their own customer-facing assistants. AI shopping assistants are no longer experimental tools; they are becoming core infrastructure for digital retail. Yet the strategies differ. Some retailers adopt Amazon’s stack, trusting AWS to host their AI shopping experiences while retaining control of data and rules. Others work with firms like Google Cloud to build proprietary assistants that reflect their own brand voice, catalog, and customer priorities.
The Future: From Search Bars to Persistent AI Companions
As AI shopping assistants mature, the online store is beginning to resemble a conversation rather than a collection of pages. Retail AI technology now supports the full lifecycle: discovery, comparison, decision-making, and even post-purchase support. In practice, this means shoppers can plan events, find gifts, or redecorate homes with a single assistant that understands context over time. Kmart is exploring how agentic AI can support customers at multiple stages of this journey, while AWS is positioning its Agentic Shopping Assistant as a plug-in brain for retailers wanting a faster route to these capabilities. For consumers, the payoff is richer virtual try-on shopping, highly personalized recommendations, and fewer dead ends. For retailers, the challenge is to balance dependence on big-tech platforms with the need to maintain unique experiences that stand out in an increasingly AI-mediated marketplace.
