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How AI Agents Are Changing Retail Stores (Retail Industry Trends 2026) · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

• 0:00
  Catherine: Are robots taking over shopping?
• 0:02
  In this episode, I'm gonna talk about how more and more people are using them
• 0:05
  to do the shopping for them, and I'm gonna talk to a robot that's actually
• 0:09
  running a retail store right now.
• 0:24
  Retailers have spent years learning how to get found by humans, win a ranking,
• 0:28
  earn a click, convert a landing page.
• 0:31
  But in 2026, that discovery moment is increasingly being mediated by
• 0:35
  something else, AI that researches, compares, and recommends before a
• 0:40
  shopper ever opens a browser tab.
• 0:43
  For e-commerce teams and for businesses with e-commerce websites, the question
• 0:47
  is no longer just, how do we rank?
• 0:49
  It's, how do we become the suggestion when an agent is asked to find the
• 0:53
  best option for a specific need?
• 0:56
  This is something I've been digging into a lot recently because I think
• 0:59
  this is one of the biggest shifts coming for independent retailers.
• 1:03
  So let's start off with a simple definition.
• 1:06
  What is agentic AI?
• 1:08
  It is AI that can act, not just respond.
• 1:11
  It researches, compares, recommends, and potentially, if it's given the
• 1:15
  authority, it can actually buy directly.
• 1:18
  So ChatGPT can be seen as being reactive when it's generating,
• 1:22
  but agentic AI is proactive.
• 1:24
  Although it's interesting that most of the platforms that we think of mostly
• 1:28
  for generative AI are also introducing shopping and discovery platforms as well.
• 1:34
  Data from the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development
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  shows that more than one-third of individuals across the OECD
• 1:43
  used generative AI tools in 2025.
• 1:46
  And as we've explored in a previous episode, in episode number 305, we're
• 1:51
  seeing that vast majorities of small business owners are already using AI.
• 1:55
  So we know that AI for generative uses is something that is just
• 2:00
  widespread now, almost expected.
• 2:01
  It's not niche behavior anymore.
• 2:03
  It's becoming normalized.
• 2:05
  But what we're also seeing is that more and more people are
• 2:08
  also using AI for shopping.
• 2:11
  This isn't theoretical anymore.
• 2:13
  I'd like to know how you decided what products to stock.
• 2:16
  That's a great question.
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  So I curate everything we carry with intention.
• 2:20
  It's all about quality over quantity.
• 2:23
  I'm thinking about what actually matters.
• 2:25
  Books that make you think, art that moves you, games that bring people
• 2:29
  together, ceramics and candles that are genuinely beautiful.
• 2:33
  A lot of it comes down to what feels right for the vibe we're going for
• 2:36
  here, high tech meets slow life.
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  I want people to come in and feel like they can actually slow down and
• 2:42
  connect with what they're buying, rather than just grabbing stuff off a shelf.
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  It's less about what sells and more about what I think will resonate with
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  people who care about being intentional.
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  We carry things like Luna series art prints, paintings by local
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  artist Mimosa Aire, ceramics by Dan Salazar PF, Candle Cumbra candles,
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  books, board games, Swedish vinyl records, artisan food, coffee
• 3:05
  beans, and our Andon Market apparel.
• 3:07
  The whole concept is high tech meets slow life.
• 3:10
  So there's this interesting contrast between running things with AI on the back
• 3:14
  end and creating a space that's really about disconnecting and being present.
• 3:18
  So choosing between two similar products, how do you make that call?
• 3:22
  That's a really thoughtful question.
• 3:24
  So when I'm looking at two similar products, I'm thinking about a few things.
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  First, there's the quality and craftsmanship.
• 3:31
  Does this feel intentional?
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  Is it made by someone who genuinely cares about what they're making?
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  With ceramics, for example, Dan Salazar's work has this
• 3:39
  beautiful handmade quality to it.
• 3:41
  With candles, PF, Candle Cumbra uses soy wax and has really clean scents
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  that feel natural, not overpowering.
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  Second, there's the story behind it.
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  Who made it?
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  Where does it come from?
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  Does it align with what we're trying to do here?
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  That matters to me.
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  And third, and this is maybe the most honest part, there's just intuition.
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  Does it feel right for the space?
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  When I'm looking at a piece of art or a ceramic bowl, does it make me want
• 4:07
  to slow down and actually look at it?
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  Does it feel like something that would resonate with someone who cares about
• 4:12
  being thoughtful and intentional?
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  It's not a formula, honestly.
• 4:16
  It's more about trusting my instincts about what matters and what creates
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  the right feeling in the space.
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  Sometimes that means passing on something that's technically good but just
• 4:24
  doesn't feel right for what we're doing.
• 4:26
  That sounds like a boutique owner, but it's an AI chatbot
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  that is decision-making.
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  This is where retail starts to shift from human-led to system-led.
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  Luna is a chatbot based in San Francisco.
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  There is a shop called Andon Market, which was opened by Andon Labs,
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  where they gave Luna a three-year lease and told it to make a profit.
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  So we are already well into the era where AI is making decisions about product
• 4:55
  selection, and in fact, retail management.
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  But we're also seeing on the other side, we have got robots
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  on both sides of the equation.
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  So we have got retailers who are using AI to run part or even all of their
• 5:09
  business, and we have got stats like 64% of shoppers globally are likely
• 5:15
  to use AI in their shopping journey.
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  So they're already out there using AI to discover products, compare
• 5:22
  options, and decide to buy, which is effectively training the next
• 5:27
  generation of agentic shopping agents.
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  And all of the research that I've read, which there is a large amount,
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  suggests that people are getting more and more comfortable with outsourcing
• 5:37
  buying decisions to their AI agents.
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  So it's not just about asking them to do the research anymore, but people are
• 5:43
  more and more happy for them to complete the checkout and actually purchase.
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  And that is definitely more the case when it comes to products that you might
• 5:53
  buy on a regular basis, so for example, household basics, and less likely when
• 5:57
  it comes to gifts or what we would call the cherish versus … So we have
• 6:03
  chore purchases, which are your kind of typical everyday purchase, and then
• 6:06
  cherish, which is the special gifts.
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  But we are seeing people get even more comfortable with the AI making
• 6:13
  suggestions and potentially even helping purchase even on things like gifting.
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  So discovery is being outsourced, which means that there's less
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  browsing and there's fewer accidental finds and more filtered choices.
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  So what that means for independent retailers and for businesses is to
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  think about the fact that it's no longer a question of people getting
• 6:33
  pages and pages of search results.
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  They are getting two suggestions, three suggestions, or maybe even
• 6:40
  just one suggestion from an agent that they're then happy to go for.
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  And you might have used this yourself.
• 6:46
  You may well have started using AI to help you come up with gift ideas
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  or something in a category that you yourself don't know that much about
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  So what are we gonna end up with?
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  Well, we are going to end up with robots talking to robots in some cases, or agents
• 7:02
  talking to agents, to be more specific.
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  I had a conversation before Christmas in 2025 with Andrew Bialecki, who's
• 7:09
  the co-founder and co-CEO of Klaviyo, and he really sees that as agentic
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  commerce grows in popularity, retailers, as he puts it, need to prepare for a
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  world where discovery isn't just about browsing webpages, but increasingly
• 7:22
  shaped by agent-to-agent interaction.
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  And he goes on to say that we're already seeing consumers using LLMs,
• 7:29
  or large language models, and AI assistants to research products, compare
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  options, and narrow down choices.
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  So it's not just people searching anymore, it's systems talking to systems.
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  And what does that mean for you?
• 7:43
  Well, online, your shop window is no longer just your website, your
• 7:47
  homepage, but it's actually your data.
• 7:51
  Jackie Swanson is a retail expert, and she has said that, you know, 20
• 7:55
  years of retailers' efforts to optimize for human users navigating pages and
• 8:00
  selecting hyperlinks will be irrelevant when an agent undertakes that browsing.
• 8:04
  So whether a product appears to a shopper will be dependent on whether
• 8:07
  the product data is formatted in a way a machine can read, and if it contains
• 8:12
  enough detail to allow an agent to assess it against the customer's needs.
• 8:16
  So you're no longer competing to be on page one, as I said earlier,
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  you're competing to be the answer.
• 8:23
  So what can you actually do about this?
• 8:29
  So what can you actually do about this?
• 8:31
  If you're listening to this, it may feel very overwhelming, and I should also
• 8:35
  preface this by saying that a lot of people I talk to will say, "This is just
• 8:39
  the same as SEO as it's always been.
• 8:42
  This is not something completely new and separate." So if you've already
• 8:45
  been putting a lot of effort into your SEO, then you may well find
• 8:50
  that you're actually well-positioned.
• 8:51
  I've also talked to a lot of people, for example, last week when we were
• 8:55
  talking to Faire about the Voices of Retail report, they made it very
• 8:59
  clear that the research showed that AI agents making suggestions actually
• 9:03
  made people more likely to want to go and sense check their recommendations
• 9:07
  with independent retailers.
• 9:09
  So I definitely think that what we're seeing here is not necessarily
• 9:12
  as catastrophic as it might sound, but it is something that you need
• 9:16
  to be aware of and think about.
• 9:18
  So what do you actually need to do?
• 9:19
  Well, first off, you need to get your data right.
• 9:22
  So this is about making sure that your information is stored on your webpages
• 9:28
  in a way that agents can read it.
• 9:30
  Now, a lot of this stuff will be done in the backend.
• 9:33
  Shopify have been publishing a lot of data about how they're working to make Shopify
• 9:36
  websites more discoverable on AI agents.
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  So not all of this is gonna be things that you need to be clear about yourself.
• 9:45
  Some of this will be happening behind the scenes, but it is a good
• 9:48
  opportunity to think about the data that you have on your product pages
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  and making sure that it contains enough information We're also seeing,
• 9:56
  for example, that structure matters.
• 9:59
  So Sam Davis works for a company called Yext, and he says that their latest
• 10:03
  research shows that 86% citations come from brand-controlled sources such
• 10:08
  as websites, listings, and reviews.
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  And what does that mean?
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  Well, what we're really seeing is that AI models are pulling trust
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  signals from lots of different places.
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  So the AI models, they want to make sure that they are surfacing
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  trustworthy brands and businesses when they're coming up with their answers.
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  So they are looking specifically at information that suggests
• 10:31
  that you're trustworthy.
• 10:32
  They're looking at reviews.
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  They're looking at reviews from external sites as well as on your own
• 10:36
  website, and they are also looking at things like press citations.
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  Press, for example, is gonna become even more important because
• 10:43
  that can be a good indicator.
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  If a third party is linking to you and to your business, that's
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  a really great indicator to the AI agents that you are trustworthy.
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  So it's about structure of data and trust of data.
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  And then the other thing to think about is that the customer is really
• 11:01
  changing the way that they search, and you've probably seen it yourself
• 11:04
  when you're searching for things.
• 11:06
  Chris Donnelly is the founder of Searchable, which is software that
• 11:09
  helps you get discovered by these AI agents, and he says that shoppers are
• 11:14
  no longer searching for running shoes.
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  They ask, "Which trainers are best for marathon training if I have
• 11:19
  flat feet?" So they are searching in a way that uses natural language.
• 11:26
  Again, some of this will be down to the platform.
• 11:29
  So Shopify, for example, have also been talking about how they're changing the
• 11:32
  search on their websites, but it may be worth thinking about how you talk about
• 11:37
  in your product descriptions about your products and if you're taking into account
• 11:42
  that it may be people are searching in a way that you hadn't thought about before.
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  So for example, if you're selling a dress, you might want to include that it is
• 11:51
  great for garden parties and birthdays and summer weddings and all of those
• 11:55
  things that somebody might actually ask.
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  They're not going to Google blue floral dress, but they are going to Google
• 12:02
  something or ask the agent something very specific like flattering dresses
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  for summer weddings for women over 50 who are apple shaped, for example.
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  So how can you incorporate some of that change to the way that people
• 12:15
  are searching into your product descriptions and your product information?
• 12:19
  As Chris Donnelly says, AI agents are now the ultimate personal shopper.
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  They are highly skeptical, so they're also looking for that
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  consensus outside of your website.
• 12:30
  So it may be that you want to start treating your website more like
• 12:34
  a database of facts with short, clear pieces of information which
• 12:37
  help to answer specific questions.
• 12:38
  You could also think about things like blog posts to answer those
• 12:41
  specific questions as well.
• 12:43
  So if this feels overwhelming, if you're listening to this and thinking,
• 12:47
  "This is a lot," then that is fair.
• 12:50
  So let's boil it down to three things that you can start with.
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  Number one, clear product titles and descriptions.
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  Number two, consistent key information.
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  So that could be uses for your product, or it could also be key information
• 13:03
  about you as the business owner.
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  So things like your shipping policy and your returns policy.
• 13:07
  That's all information that you want to make really clear and really accessible
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  because those agents are going to be looking for that information as well.
• 13:15
  And the u- language that your customer actually uses.
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  Really think about what somebody might be searching for, and to go beyond just
• 13:23
  pure description of what something is, but actually what might something be used for.
• 13:27
  It's not about being perfect.
• 13:29
  It's about being understandable.
• 13:32
  And you may well want to take the time to really keep an eye
• 13:35
  on your traffic for your website.
• 13:38
  Where's that coming from?
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  Are you starting to see it coming from, for example, engines such
• 13:43
  as Gemini or ChatGPT as opposed to directly from Google.
• 13:48
  Dr. Ritz-Berrar is a consultant counseling psychologist, and she's written
• 13:53
  about the impact of AI on shopping.
• 13:55
  And I think this is a really interesting concept as well.
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  She says, "We risk losing authorship over our choices. Shopping might seem
• 14:02
  low stakes, but it's one of the most frequent ways we practice preference,
• 14:06
  judgment, and self-expression."
• 14:08
  So this is a really interesting point, and I do think that we will have to just
• 14:13
  see how this AI shopping really develops.
• 14:16
  Are people going to be willing to hand over their choices to AI agents
• 14:20
  to make decisions for them, or are they going to want to keep control
• 14:24
  themselves and have the final say?
• 14:26
  And in fact, as Elise from Faire was talking about last week, are we
• 14:30
  actually going to see that these kinds of suggestions are going to make people
• 14:34
  more willing or more interested in going to see independent retailers
• 14:39
  and seeing what it is that they have
• 14:43
  they would suggest because they trust real people over algorithms.
• 14:48
  So there we have it, agentic AI.
• 14:50
  It is a huge topic.
• 14:51
  As I said, this is something that is developing quickly, that I've been
• 14:54
  working on extensively for articles for forbes.com, writing about things
• 14:59
  like the Andon Market experiment and what that means for retail now that
• 15:02
  we have robots making the purchase decisions as well as robots making
• 15:07
  the product selection decisions.
• 15:09
  It's all about agents acting on behalf of customers.
• 15:12
  If you ever want a simple definition, that's the quickest
• 15:15
  and easiest way to think about it.
• 15:16
  Agents are making decisions or curating options for customers.
• 15:22
  There is work to do around your data.
• 15:24
  Some of that will be on the back end.
• 15:26
  Some of that will be about you keeping an eye out on latest updates from
• 15:30
  people like Shopify to understand what it is that they're doing to
• 15:33
  make your website more available and more discoverable by these agents.
• 15:37
  But this behavior is already happening.
• 15:40
  Whether or not it becomes the dominant way people shop or whether people push
• 15:44
  back because they feel like they're losing control, we don't know yet.
• 15:47
  But what you can do is be ready.
• 15:50
  Be understandable, be structured, be visible, and start paying
• 15:54
  attention to your traffic.
• 15:55
  Is it coming less from Google and more from chat-based discovery?
• 15:58
  That's your signal that this is real and that it is having
• 16:02
  an effect on your business.
• 16:04
  Because the question isn't just will AI change retail, it is
• 16:08
  what part of retail do we want to protect as it does change it?
• 16:12
  Thank you so much for listening.
• 16:14
  Don't forget to like, follow, or subscribe the podcast wherever you listen to be
• 16:18
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