Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / AI Just Changed How Customers Find Your Brand (And Most Brands Aren't Ready)

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AI Just Changed How Customers Find Your Brand (And Most Brands Aren't Ready) · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:00
  Shop Talk is one of the largest commerce conferences in the world, bringing together thousands of founders, operators, and retail leaders who are actively building what comes next.
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  Today's episode comes to you from the floor of Shop Talk Spring 2026 in Las Vegas, where I caught up with some of the sharpest operators and founders in retail.
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  Let's get into it.
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  All right, Dave Goulas back at Shop Talk, and I am here with Kimberly from Novi.
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  Hey, Kimberly.
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  Hey, Dave.
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  Nice to see you.
• 0:37
  Nice to see you.
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  So I'm walking the show here.
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  Your booth caught my eye because it says, help your products get recommended in AI search.
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  So that's something certainly that should be on every brand, every retailer's mind these days.
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  So can you talk more about what your company does?
• 0:53
  Yeah, absolutely.
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  So what when AI is recommending products in commerce, it doesn't recommend brands, it recommends an actual product.
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  But getting your product as a brand recommended in AI is a very different task than a lot of marketers have focused on today.
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  And so we are helping them with that activity.
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  Yeah.
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  And so for so many years, it used to be SEO, right?
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  And now, I guess I don't even know.
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  I always refer to it as like the AI eo.
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  But is there an actual term for that?
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  AEO or agentic showing up in agentic commerce.
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  Agentic commerce.
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  Okay.
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  And just so people kind of get a sense, like, how different, how much of a shift is that from the traditional, you know, whether it's keyword stuffing or kind of other things people would do to introduce SEO.
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  Yeah, it's very different.
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  But the thing to think about is in SEO, everything was capturing demand.
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  So I had a search term, I was going to click it, type it in.
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  You are buying keywords to capture that demand.
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  But what's happening in agentic is demand is being created because the conversation is happening.
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  And then the LLM is recommending products that the consumer maybe didn't even know that they should be thinking about or wasn't even in their conversation that they were having.
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  And so what you're thinking about in AEO is capturing the or being the demand that's being created, being present and being relevant and being recommended.
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  So the techniques and tactics that you do.
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  Okay.
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  And so with this shift that's happening, it kind of has been happening right before our eyes.
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  It's almost like when you go to Google, it defaults to like, you know, Gemini taking over once you Google something.
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  So how, from your standpoint, working with brands, how, how many people are really up on using or, you know, optimizing their search property.
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  This new age.
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  Yeah, we focus in CPG and retail and what we're finding is very many brands, but largely because, you know, back in November, October time frame, people didn't believe that people would be doing purchasing and discovery in ways.
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  But then, you know, Black Friday happened, shift in the way consumers behave happened.
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  And now brands are starting to actually try and catch up.
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  And a lot of it is trying to get the right experience in house, the right talent, the right understanding and catching up to the demand that's increasing every month.
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  Okay.
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  And so if people are hearing this and they realize that they are behind the curve, right, like what steps can they take immediately to catch up?
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  So one of the things that we talk about with brands is the number one thing is looking at your own website and how you're structuring your information.
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  What a lot of brands don't realize is a website that you have is optimized for humans and the underlying schema is not breedable by the out.
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  So making sure that you're saying schema is readable, it has the right information in it, it's fully filled out and with all of the data that an LLM needs to go and find.
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  To know that your product exists and to know that it's relevant to the conversations you're trying to show up, that's like the number one thing from there then.
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  Yes, it's an exercise in going out and looking at how else your product was talked about across the Internet.
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  So that would be in retail feeds, the marketplaces you sell on, different blog posts, media outlets.
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  That's the next phase.
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  But the first phase is really focusing on.
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  Okay, all right.
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  And why is it so important for brands, right, really for a company like yours too to be at shop to.
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  Yes, this is very interesting year walk around and everyone's talking about AI, But I think right now the industry is trying to figure out how do we evolve moving so quickly.
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  Things are changing every day.
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  So it's really important to be here to understand how brands are thinking about evolving today to understand how what different companies are coming out, understand the competitive landscape, but also just be part of the conversation.
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  Especially if we're a leading, leading edge, part of agent commerce.
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  And so lots of brands want to know what do we do next.
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  So we want to be helping involve the conversation.
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  Okay.
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  And if brands are out here listening to this and they want to learn more about your services and how they can actually work with you, what's the best way they can get into?
• 5:24
  Best way is to go to movieconnect.com there's lots of ways for you to get in touch with us.
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  Okay, we'll link in the show notes.
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  Thanks so much.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  All right, back here at Shop Talk with Katrina.
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  Hello from Bodify.
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  Yes, Katrina, so tell that you're just telling me all about Bodify.
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  Tell our listeners.
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  So we help brands be found across traditional and AI search and get given this new search era on ChatGPT, we ensure that your brand will be highly ranked and is found.
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  Yeah.
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  And so like you said, this new era of search, I mean, I feel like AI has completely revolutionized shopping just in the past year.
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  So talk about why that's so important today as opposed to just even a year or two ago in terms of being found online.
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  I think for the consumer experience, people want instant gratification when searching for, you know, the certain clothing item or even as we're finding more now, like traveling, like find me the best hotel, this price with these combinations.
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  And people want answers instantly and they want people who find them that are highly ranked because like the human, I guess like our mind always goes to the top.
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  So once we see the first thing, we think that we can trust.
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  Okay.
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  And so with, with AI being so dominant here at the show.
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  Right.
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  Everything.
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  Yes.
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  So many AI startups, everyone's talking about their agents, you know, all that.
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  Why?
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  What sets Spotify apart from like other other.
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  So at Bodify, we actually have added consulting services that once we have all of your first party data into our platform and we spot the visibility gaps that are getting in the way of you being found, we are
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  able to actually fix that for you to take the load off instead of just handing you a site audit.
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  Okay, all right.
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  And so we're here at Shop Talk.
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  The energy on the floor is crazy.
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  Oh yeah, the show is buzzing.
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  Why is it so important for people in the retail and the e commerce industry to come to a show like this?
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  I think especially you need to get ahead as you for AI and AEO is definitely the buzzword and to step on it now and to be able to future proof yourself will make you the leader of the future.
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  Okay, Katrina, thanks so much.
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  Thank you.
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  Nice meeting you.
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  All right,.
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  All right.
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  Back here at Shop Talk with Ben Smith of Similar Web.
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  Hey, Ben.
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  Hiya.
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  Nice to meet you everyone.
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  Yeah, likewise.
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  Likewise.
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  So, Ben, we're going to get into what similar Web does here in a minute, but Shop Talk is just buz with energy.
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  There's so much excitement here on the floor.
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  Just from your perspective being in the industry, why is it so important to come to an event like this?
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  Yeah, so I'm from London.
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  This is my first time to Vegas and my first time to shop talk.
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  The energy is huge.
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  I cannot believe how many people, but also how great the conversations have been with brands and sort of vendors alike.
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  Why do I think it's important?
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  Well, I used to be in retail, used to be on the other side, not on the selling meeting.
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  People understanding what their challenges are, just spark something in brain to sort of start moving.
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  And then also the market's changing.
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  Right.
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  There's so much going on with AI, but with changes in logistics systems, everything's going on.
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  I don't, I think if you didn't come here, you probably wouldn't understand the opportunities out there for the business.
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  Really?
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  I like that.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  And so similar web, what exactly does your company do?
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  Yes, it's similar web.
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  We're the number one source of digital data across the world.
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  At a high level.
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  We, we can give you web analytics data on any website in the and from that major retailers, CPG brands, tech companies predominantly use this for a market understanding, like a real time view because we can tell you who's
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  growing, who's deploying on a daily basis.
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  But then we move very much into bigger use cases like digital shelf retailer pricing, promotions, you name it, we've got the data that usually helps.
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  And in today's world, with everything being so ultra competitive, particularly in retail, why is that so important?
• 9:35
  Yeah, so what I'm seeing, particularly in the last few days, last few months, is fragmentation.
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  So because AI is happening and the barriers to entry to create new brands, create new retailers, is so low, you can viacode a website, connect it to Shopify, for instance, we're just seeing more and more brands.
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  So we're seeing 300,000 e commerce sites with over 5,000 monthly visits in the US alone.
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  And that's growing.
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  Right?
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  And again, where we see it is, yes, the big ones are still big, but your market's changed massively and you've got to track them early to make sure you can defend or attack close to the market segments.
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  Yeah, those stats are staggering.
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  Okay.
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  And so you mentioned AI there.
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  I mean, especially being at a company that's so heavy in data analytics.
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  I mean, how are you seeing AI disrupt E commerce?
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  Yeah, every single customer of ours is talking about it, wants to understand it, how are they being cited on ChatGPT, etc.
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  But also from an operational side of things, we're Seeing the early adopting companies, usually tech or sort of smaller scale companies, are starting to integrate our data through claw through our mcps.
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  We're not seeing that from the bigger ones yet, but that's where this is going.
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  We will be selling data or companies selling data and then the retailer can do whatever they want in minutes using Claude or lovable or base 44 to create insights, alerts, agents, etc.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  And Ben, if people want to find out more about Similar Web and how they can potentially utilize your services, what's the best way people can find you online?
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  Probably the best thing is to search SimilarWeb on Google or go to www.simpledweb.com.
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  All right, Ben, thanks so much.
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  Cheers.
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  Thank you.
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  All right, I'm here at Shop Talk with Zach from decacon AI.
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  Hey, Zach.
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  Thank you.
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  All right, so Shop Talk, the end the show just kicked off.
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  The energy here is crazy.
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  So many people, so many booths.
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  Tell us, why do you guys come to Shop Talk?
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  It's the best place for retail brands to connect with some of the brands that, you know, I interact with all the time online.
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  Either I buy from them or see them all on the TV ads.
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  Now I'm actually seeing the people who are making the businesses run.
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  They talk with them in person.
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  It's really nice.
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  Yes, absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  Okay, so Decagon AI.
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  I feel like there's about a thousand.
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  AI companies at this show.
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  It's everywhere.
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  How is AI in general just revolutionized e commerce?
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  So over the last year, I don't.
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  Think there's a single sector of the world business that hasn't been affected by AI.
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  For retail, it's made it really easy to get in touch with brands and there's new ways that brands are interacting with their customers.
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  So companies like decagon are leading that charge.
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  Right.
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  As a customer, I want the brand to give me the best delivery of, you know, service.
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  I want them to understand who I am as a customer.
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  And to do that, it's usually really expensive.
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  Right.
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  You need someone that got human usually to go study the customer, know their data, know your history, have like a personal shopper for some of these brands.
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  But now AI has made that accessible to everyone.
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  Everyone should.
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  Excuse me, should get a personal shopper, should get that top tier experience.
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  Okay.
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  And so let's talk about specifically what decagon does and what that looks like for the customers.
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  So we believe in this concierge customer experience, which is the brand knows what you've bought from them, knows your preferences, your style Preferences and being able to have this companion that goes with you on the brand to deliver
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  better personalized shopping experiences.
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  Okay.
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  Love it.
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  All right, Zach, if people want to.
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  Get in touch, learn more about the.
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  Company, what you do, what's the best way they can do this?
• 13:28
  Go to our website, Decagon AI, get a demo, fill it out.
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  You can reach out to me directly.
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  Zachary Linhart, LinkedIn L A N H A R T.
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  And we can chat more and talk about what that might look like for your team.
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  Okay, thanks so much.
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  Thank you.
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  Every chance.
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  All right, back here at Shop Talk, I'm here with Hannah from Creator iq.
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  Hey, Hannah.
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  So the energy here at Shop Talk this year is crazy.
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  So many people, the floor is buzzing.
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  Talk to the audience about why it's important being in the industry to come to an event like Shop.
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  Yeah, I think in an AI remote world, we're not having this face to face interaction as much as we really should.
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  And being here in the industry, it's buzzing.
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  You're hearing what everybody is doing, what's new, what's next, you're learning, networking and communicating with people and it's really, really worth it.
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  Yeah.
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  And you brought up AI, which of course is the top brand, the show.
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  There's AI everywhere.
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  So many AI startups, companies talking about their, their agents and this and that.
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  So how do you see AI disrupting retail and E commerce?
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  Yeah, well, I'll tell you a little bit from the economy side of things because that's where Creator IQ really, really operates.
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  And I think that right now we're seeing that so much AI search results are coming directly from Creator Creator posts from Meta directly.
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  And so I think that we're going to be seeing a lot more retail brands thinking about how they're working with creators as their way of getting in front of AI audience.
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  Okay, and Creator iq, what do you need?
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  So we're an influencer marketing software platform.
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  We work with brands to help them really optimize their creator campaigns through our software.
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  So they can hop in the platform and they can find creators to work with.
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  They can reach out to them, send them, reuse approved content, and then get all the results on how those performances are related to the brand and talk.
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  About that process too, because it's so important to really have an authentic fit with someone that's really aligned with the brand and has the right audience.
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  So how does your solution really make that process easier for both sides, for the retailer and the consumer?
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  Creators?
• 15:52
  Yeah, absolutely.
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  We can help a lot with vetting and really finding authentic creators that are going to be a good fit for your brand or our brand.
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  All right.
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  And if people want to find out more, learn about what you do.
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  Creatoriq.com okay.
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  Thanks so much.
• 16:11
  Thank you.