The promise is simple enough. AI agents act on behalf of shoppers to search, compare, select, and even purchase products. These agents will use a shopper's preferences - stated and inferred - rather than browsing products from digital shelves. McKinsey & Company describes it this way: "Companies have spent decades refining consumer journeys, fine-tuning every click, scroll, and tap. But in the era of agentic commerce, the consumer no longer travels alone. Their digital proxies now navigate the commerce ecosystem."
Artificial intelligence is changing ecommerce so quickly that keeping up is daunting. Consider the prominent payment processors, platforms, and marketplaces that collaborated with OpenAI and Perplexity in the past year. Perplexity and Shopify in November 2024. OpenAI with Shopify in April 2025. Perplexity and PayPal in May 2025. OpenAI and Shopify again in September 2025. Perplexity and Stripe in September 2025. OpenAI and Walmart in October 2025. Perplexity and PayPal again in November 2025. OpenAI and Target in November 2025.
Instead of stomping his foot in protest, he found a like-minded teen on Facebook, Cameron Zoub, to help him build a bot that would buy limited-edition sneakers for people before they sell out. "We basically spent the next eight years building a ton of different products," Schwartz tells Fortune. "We built marketplaces, we built consumer apps, we built games, we built social networks, we built SAS companies, people agencies, and we did pretty well."
Amazon's growth as a mass and premium beauty retailer significantly raises the competitive bar for beauty industry players, particularly traditional retailers and department stores. Future success will depend less on brand exclusivity and more on convenience and enriched online shopping experiences.
Simona Paganetto's initiative Implasticfree.com transforms the quest for plastic alternatives into a trusted resource, connecting conscious consumers with brands committed to sustainability.
