Every shopper wants to feel a connection to their favorite brands. Retailers have long realized that business stability and growth is all about personalization, and making the shopper feel like they are a valued guest. AI technologies are a big part of this effort: analyzing retail data, making product recommendations, and automating processes that streamline the customer journey to deliver a great experience.

Today, agentic AI is stepping in to make it even easier - or harder, depending on the condition of your customer data. IBM defines agentic commerce as 'an approach to buying and selling in which AI agents act on behalf of consumers or businesses to research, negotiate and complete purchases, often without direct human intervention.' That's a wow, adding significant depth to the customer experience a retailer can offer a shopper. Let's call it hyper-personalization, and let's acknowledge that it only works if it's powered by clean, enriched data. 

Yes. Agentic commerce is not only transforming the retail industry by automating operations, personalizing shopping journeys, and enabling real-time decisions, but consumer adoption and engagement are soaring. The proof is in the numbers, as consulting firm BCG reports a 4,700% YoY traffic increase to US retail sites from GenAI browsers and chat services. These same buyers are deeply engaged, spending 32% more time on site, browsing 10% more pages, and resulting in a 27% lower bounce rate from retailer emails.

These numbers also demonstrate that retailers need to participate or risk loss of customer engagement and diminished brand loyalty as third-party AI platforms take up more space in their buyers' universe.

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