What AI Shopping Assistants Are and Why Retailers Want Them
AI shopping assistants are conversational, task-oriented software agents that combine product data, customer signals, and automation to guide shoppers through discovery, selection, and purchasing decisions with minimal human intervention. Retailers and commerce platforms are building these retail AI agents into apps, websites, and back-office tools to reduce friction in commerce and deliver AI-powered personalization at scale. Instead of static menus and filters, customers can describe what they need in natural language and receive tailored recommendations, training tips, or troubleshooting help. On the back end, agentic commerce platforms connect these conversations to inventory systems, pricing rules, and merchandising logic, turning intent into actions such as curated lists, cross-sell suggestions, or completed carts. As automated customer service matures, these agents are also beginning to coordinate tasks across systems, forming early “agentic networks” that support both consumer shopping and enterprise procurement.
DICK’S Sporting Goods Turns Its App into a Digital Coach
DICK’S Sporting Goods has embedded an AI Coach directly into its mobile app, turning its catalog and expertise into an on-demand assistant for athletes. The AI shopping assistant combines the company’s product knowledge with conversational AI so customers can describe their sport, skill level, and preferences, then receive tailored equipment suggestions and “Pro Tips” inside a single chat-like experience. According to DICK’S, the assistant can also surface training content, product education, and guidance tied to services in-store. This move reflects a wider shift as retailers expand conversational AI from basic automated customer service into active product discovery and decision support. The AI Coach sits on top of broader investments in inventory automation and omni-channel systems, showing how retail AI agents are being wired into operational data to connect AI-powered personalization with real-time stock visibility and fulfillment options.
Amazon Pushes Agentic Shopping Tech Beyond Its Own Store
Amazon Web Services is extending its AI shopping capabilities to other retailers with the AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant, an AI-powered style and product advisor that runs on retailers’ own sites. The tool is built on the same technology behind Alexa for Shopping, which Amazon says drove nearly $12 billion in incremental sales last year. Retailers can configure their own AI shopping assistants that talk with customers, answer questions, and recommend products based on each store’s inventory, content, and brand rules. AWS says these deployments can be live in around 60 days and that retailers retain control of their customer data and catalogs. An early adopter is Kate Spade, whose parent company used the system to launch an AI gift concierge that asks about the occasion, recipient, and style before generating ideas. This signals a new phase in agentic commerce platforms, where cloud providers supply the infrastructure for white-label retail AI agents.
Nosto and Shopify Sidekick Bring Agentic Workflows to Merchandisers
While many AI shopping assistants face the customer, Nosto is focusing on the teams behind the storefront by embedding its agentic Commerce Experience Platform into Shopify Sidekick. Its latest release lets merchandisers use conversational prompts inside Shopify to tune Nosto’s product discovery and personalization logic, without switching tools or relying on developers. During a live demo at the OMR Festival, Ford’s ecommerce partner used Sidekick prompts to change the design of Nosto-powered recommendations on the brand’s accessories store, showing how agentic workflows can shorten feedback loops. Nosto’s Huginn AI agent and its Huginn Connect technology aim to bring deeper commerce intelligence into Sidekick, from Doc Agents for technical guidance to Merchandising Agents that surface proactive insights and, over time, automate execution. These capabilities hint at future agentic networks where AI coordinates configuration, testing, and reporting of personalized experiences inside core commerce platforms.
Agentic Networks Reach Enterprise Procurement and the Future of Commerce
Agentic AI is not limited to consumer-facing journeys; it is also reshaping enterprise procurement. Coupa’s acquisition of Tonkean points toward agentic networks that automate procurement workflows, from intake and approvals to supplier interactions, echoing how retail AI agents guide shoppers. In both cases, AI systems translate human requests into structured tasks, orchestrate steps across multiple tools, and escalate only the exceptions. As Accenture estimates that more than 30% of online commerce could run through AI agents by 2030, retailers and enterprises are racing to deploy automated customer service and transaction support that feel conversational but operate autonomously. The emerging pattern is clear: AI shopping assistants handle product discovery and personalization at the edge, while agentic commerce platforms coordinate actions in the background, promising faster decisions, fewer clicks, and a more guided buying experience for both consumers and business users.