Podcast
Retailgentic | Consumer Behavior & Retail Trend
Hosted by Scot Wingo | Retail Trends Analyst · EN
Retailgentic explores consumer behavior and retail trends to help brands and retailers innovate. Join Scot Wingo for expert insights, actionable news, and ecommerce innovation strategies to navigate the future of retail and agentic commerce.
21episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ads in the Answer Engine: Roger Dunn, CCO, Thrad on Agentic Commerce, ChatGPT Ads & the Snowflake Economy
Yesterday00:55:49Tap to summarizeRoger Dunn has watched retail media grow up from the agency side (Mediacom, GroupM, WPP), the tech side (he launched Criteo's retail media business in Australia), and the brand side (a global retail media role at Diageo, home of Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Baileys). Now he's Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Thrad, a Silicon Valley startup building the ad infrastructure for LLMs, "ChatGPT ads, but for everyone else."In this episode, Roger and Scot get into where advertising actually lives inside answer engines, what's working today, and how brands should think about showing up when shopping stops looking like a search box.Highlights: What Thrad is building: both the supply side (helping retailers and chatbots monetize conversational surfaces) and a self-serve buy side where brands can run ads across existing AI inventory globally, not just in the four countries where ChatGPT ads have launched.The new ad formats: sponsored messages, sponsored prompts, polling ads, and product carousels, plus the steady stream of formats Google unveiled at Google Marketing Live.AI-native campaigns: how Thrad turns a URL, a brief, or a prompt into keyword, prompt, and dynamically generated persona targeting, and why creative (human faces beat a bare logo) is where the human edge still lives.What ChatGPT ads look like right now: CPCs roughly in the $1–$5 range, and why the early “hot mess vs. holy grail” takes are both missing the point.Roger’s definition of agentic commerce: not a robot doing the final click, but AI shaping every stage of the journey: discovery, comparison, price, review synthesis.The state of the field: Gemini’s full-court press, Perplexity’s Comet browser, Meta routing UCP checkout into Instagram, the Shopify question Wall Street keeps asking, and where Anthropic/Claude might (or might not) play.Down Under as a test lab: Woolworths’ Olive, Bunnings’ Buddy, a duopoly retail market, and why Australia keeps getting the pilots.The advice brands actually need: start small (think $10–20K in a market) but start; get out of “keyword jail”; and the analogy that lands it: keywords are ice cubes, prompts are snowflakes. A few uniform ice cubes everyone fights over, versus infinite unique prompts where a challenger brand can finally own its wedge.This is a genuinely useful tour of the side of agentic commerce most of us squint at, ads, from someone who has built the playbook three times over. Enjoy the conversation.Timestamps:02:00 Scot's intro — who is Roger Dunn?05:17 Conversation begins — live from Sydney06:47 Roger's backstory — UK to Australia, the agency years08:00 Criteo, Epsilon, and a global retail media role at Diageo09:05 What Thrad is — ads inside LLMs09:38 Why retail media is "the nirvana of marketing"11:13 SSP, DSP, self-serve — and ChatGPT ads in just 4 countries17:58 The new ad formats: sponsored prompts, polling ads, product carousels19:53 AI-native campaigns — URLs, briefs, and dynamic personas22:30 Real ChatGPT ad numbers — CPCs and why human faces win24:30 Roger's definition of agentic commerce27:05 OpenAI's $100B ad target27:55 Answer engines, product cards, and checkout in Australia29:13 The state of the arena — ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta, Perplexity, Apple30:57 The UCP checkout in Instagram and the Shopify squeeze32:50 Inside the Australian market — duopolies, Temu, and Shein35:52 Will Anthropic/Claude ever do commerce?38:55 Retailer-hosted agents — Alexa, Woolworths' Olive, Bunnings' Buddy42:17 The top questions brands are asking Roger48:44 Escaping "keyword jail"50:40 Ice cubes vs. snowflakes52:00 How challenger brands find their wedge54:30 Where to find Roger👉 Connect with Roger Dunn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerdunn/👉 Learn more about Thrad: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thrads/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Who Buys, Not Just How: Inside ShopAgentic's €1.9M Bet with Co-Founders Alexander Ringsdorff (CEO) & Kai-Thomas Krause (CPAO)
1w ago00:45:56Tap to summarizeThis is an exclusive first look at ShopAgentic, and we cover a lot of ground with both co-founders. First we go over the big company news, then rewind through two decades of e-commerce history that brought Alex and Kai to this moment, and why they think the ground is shifting under the entire industry.From there it’s a wide-ranging conversation about what changes when agents, not humans, become the buyers: how a commerce platform built for this era might actually work, how merchants would use it, and where payments, protocols, and front ends are all heading. It’s part founder story, part state-of-the-union on agentic commerce, and part early peek at what they’re building. Hit play. 👇Highlights:The €1.9M pre-seed: Led by Mayventures and Greenfield Capital, with around nine entrepreneur and business-angel tickets, a “US-feeling” round raised in Europe.Who buys, not just how: Kai’s framing for the whole thesis, agentic commerce is the first shift that changes the buyer itself, not just the channel.Built for humans, not agents: Why the founders believe legacy platforms, even the ones they helped build, aren’t architected for what’s coming.The ACP moment: The OpenAI release that made the duo sit down and say “this is gonna change potentially everything.”The weekend prototype: Asked for screenshots for the pitch deck, Kai vibe-coded a working demo instead, and it’s part of why investors leaned in.A squad of agents, not a platform: The product reimagined from the outcome backward, sold into innovation budgets rather than million-dollar replatforming.Ephemeral UIs: “The fast fashion of front ends” interfaces generated on the flyThe protocol soup: Why UCP is “the one to go for” right now, and how ShopAgentic wants to absorb that complexity so merchants don’t have to.A wake-up call for brands: “You’re not even part of that conversation. That’s why you’re not seeing the traffic.”Debut at K5 Berlin (June 22–24): Their first time on the trade-show circuit, including a business-user AI hackathon.Two founders who've lived through every era of e-commerce software, now betting the next one gets rebuilt for agents. Whether you run a brand wondering where your traffic went or you're just curious what a platform "born agentic" looks like, this one's a glimpse into the future. Enjoy the conversation.Timestamps: 04:21 The big news: a €1.9M pre-seed06:07 How the round came together (the inbound snowball)07:54 Alex's background: age 14, Magento, CouchCommerce10:09 Meeting Stephan Schambach and building NewStore11:35 The German e-commerce family tree13:27 Kai's background: Metro, robotics, commercetools16:19 From SaaS to open source to composable17:30 Why agentic needs a new platform — the ACP moment20:28 The founding story (and a little Guinness)22:07 The weekend prototype that sold investors25:43 How agentic commerce is actually different26:04 The "squad of agents" vision27:59 Dashboard, chatbox, and voice for merchants30:30 Vibe coding, Lovable, Visa, and ephemeral UIs32:30 Stablecoins and cross-border payments34:48 x402, MPP, micropayments, and the local-agent explosion37:07 Debut at K5 Berlin (and a hackathon)38:17 The agent OS and guardrails39:09 Navigating the protocol soup: UCP, ACP, AP242:00 Who should be an early merchant44:14 Launching agentic-first44:48 LinkedIn, shopagentic.com, and wrap-up👉 Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderringsdorff/👉 Connect with Kai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaithomaskrause/👉 Learn more about ShopAgentic: https://www.shopagentic.com/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Enterprise or Easy? Salesforce Says Both: DOUBLE Pod with Nitin Mangtani and Lennart Stevens from Salesforce
2w ago00:48:12Tap to summarizeThis week we have a rare double header. Scheduling conflicts meant no three-way interview, so we sat down with two Salesforce leaders back to back, both there to unpack the company’s big June release, headlined by the launch of its newest platform, Storefront Next.First up is Nitin, who walks through the full sweep of the June release and makes the case for why, taken together, it's Salesforce's biggest commerce release in five years. Then Lennart takes us deeper into the agentic guts, one of our favorite parts.The two interviews rhyme in one important way: both leaders insist that agentic commerce on your owned-and-operated channels matters just as much as showing up in ChatGPT and Gemini. As Nitin puts it, skipping your own shopper agent is like the old days of saying "I participate on Google Shopping, but I don't have search on my website." Highlights Biggest release in five years: Nitin frames the June release as Salesforce Commerce’s biggest swing since he arrived.“It’s 2026, let’s combine the two together”: The forced choice between enterprise-grade and easy-to-launch is a false distinction that can be engineered away.The acquisition cheat code: Rather than spend five years building modern AI search in-house, Salesforce bought Cimulate. It now powers every shopper agent prompt, and it’s available even to non-Commerce Cloud customers.“This code should be written by Claude prompting and not by you”: Storefront Next ships you to the 90% point out of the box; the last 10% is vibe-coded. Migration utilities plus Claude Code shrink what used to be a capital-T front-end project.Live in under 30 minutes: Lennart’s demo path: name the storefront, connect a code repo, click go, and you’re previewing a high-performance site in under half an hour.You need your own Rufus AND to play off-site: Both guests hammer the distinction between agentic commerce on owned-and-operated channels and syndicated commerce via UCP on Gemini, OpenAI, and beyond. One without the other is like being on Google Shopping with no search box on your own site.Focus is magic: Nitin consolidated 20 initiatives down to 4–5, runs two-week iteration cycles instead of two-year PRDs, and credits that discipline (plus AI-native development) for the release’s scope.Advisor and confidant: Lennart’s favorite anecdote… a jewelry brand found customers were more comfortable asking an agent “how big should the ring be, how much should it cost?” than asking a friend.Checkout wisdom from Nitin: Stop offering eight payment options. “Just put Apple Pay on your PDP” four options max, on a good day.The era of choosing between enterprise and easy looks like it's ending and the agents are coming either way. Enjoy the conversation.Timestamps:01:43 Scot's intro: a rare Salesforce double header04:17 Part 1: Nitin Mangtani, EVP & GM of Salesforce Commerce05:40 The Cimulate acquisition story06:50 Inside the June release: search, Storefront Next, merchandising, POS, OMS10:00 Four kinds of customers, one platform11:50 Migration, Claude Code, and the 90/10 rule14:10 Shopper agents: owned & operated vs. syndicated17:05 How Cimulate is baked in search and agentic collapse into one19:05 "Enterprise or easy" is a false choice20:15 Focus, two-week iterations, and acquisitions as a cheat code23:10 ChatGPT leaving checkout and the state of agentic commerce26:10 Part 2: Lennart Stevens, VP of Product, Agentforce Commerce27:15 Lennart's background: two decades on the partner side29:15 Where Storefront Next fits in the Salesforce lineup32:45 The unlock: a storefront live in under 30 minutes35:20 React, Tailwind, shadcn + MCP server and 40+ skills38:05 Design partners and the adoption curve40:55 AI readiness: e-commerce leaders' #1 concern43:50 The shopper agent as advisor and confidant44:45 Agentic merchandising and the Figma unlock👉 Connect with Nitin Mangtani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinmangtani/👉 Connect with Nitin Mangtani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennart-stevens/👉 Learn more about Storefront Next: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/storefront-next/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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“We Have Definitely Been Cooking”: Ashish Gupta, Google’s VP of Merchant Shopping, on Everything Google Just Shipped at GML
3w ago00:26:18Tap to summarizeMay 20th at Google Marketing Live, right before my high-level strategic chat with Nick Fox, SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google (you can read/listen to that one here), I got to sit down with Ashish Gupta, VP & GM of Merchant Shopping at Google.If the Nick Fox conversation was the 30,000-ft strategic view of where Google is taking AI Mode, AIO, and the answer engine, this one with Ashish is the exact opposite. It’s the on-the-ground tactical roadmap for merchants. Ashish is literally one of the people building the thing, and he’s telling you what to do about it before holiday.This interview was recorded right after his fireside chat with Augustina Sartori at Google HQ. On that panel, he laid out the 4 things merchants should do right now: Product feedsData strengthAI campaigns, Agentic infrastructure (i.e., UCP). We get into all four. In this interview we discuss:The 6 new conversational attributes — just launched, live now in the supplemental feed (FAQs, related items, popularity rank, document links, additional variants, item group). Why they exist, how to use them, and the “best sales associate in your store” analogy for how AI surfaces are now expected to behaveUCP’s expansion into new verticals — food delivery and travel. Why now, and why the “U” in Universal Commerce Protocol is doing real workLoyalty in UCP via Google account linking — your Ulta $10 reward shows up at checkout. Critical for merchants who don’t allow guest checkoutData strength — bringing first-party loyalty data into Gemini / AI Mode surfaces so loyal customers see more of the brands they loveAI Max & P-Max and the new ad formats showing up across AI surfaces (and YouTube)AI Performance Insights coming to Merchant Center — the new Share of Voice metric, why the funnel doesn’t behave like a normal funnel (it can actually widen deeper in), and how Google is moving from a “click/keyword” company to an “answer engine” companyThe keyword vs. long-tail question — in an answer engine world, is there even such a thing as a “popular search term” anymore? (Ashish’s answer is interesting)What’s neat about doing these back-to-back is you get both layers in one day. Nick’s interview is about framing: how Google thinks about AI Mode vs. traditional Search, the Innovator’s Dilemma, the ~5 prior attempts at “transactions on Google” and why this one is different, and trust at the intersection of answer engines and AI ads. Ashish’s interview is the merchant-facing manifestation of all of that: here’s exactly what’s shipping, here’s what to put in your feed, here’s how we’ll measure you.Read both together and you get a pretty complete picture of what Google is doing with agentic commerce in 2026.Timestamps: 01:41 — Episode intro: Ashish Gupta returns, context on GML, the merchant vs. consumer org structure at Google04:39 — Interview begins (on-site at Building 100 Bayview)05:18 — Breaking news: the 6 new conversational attributes are live06:32 — The "best sales associate" analogy for AI surfaces08:09 — Popularity rank: how merchants can signal without giving away proprietary data09:37 — Related items, additional variants, and item group attributes11:01 — UCP expansion into new verticals (food delivery, travel) — why now12:32 — The 4 things merchants should do: feeds, data strength, AI campaigns, agentic infrastructure13:02 — Data strength explained: first-party loyalty data in AI surfaces14:08 — Loyalty in UCP via Google account linking (the Ulta $10 example)16:01 — AI campaigns: AI Max, P-Max, and showing up across AI surfaces17:46 — New ad formats and YouTube shopping18:04 — UCP on YouTube and what's next (Gmail?)19:19 — AI Performance Insights & the Share of Voice metric20:17 — Discover / Explore / Purchase: Google crosses from search engine to answer engine21:34 — Why the AI funnel doesn't behave like a traditional funnel23:20 — Long-tail vs. keyword: do "popular search terms" still exist in an answer-engine world?25:05 — What Ashish is most excited about26:06 — Outro👉 Connect with Ashish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishgupta98/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Nick Fox, Google's SVP of Knowledge and Information, Live Google Marketing Live Interview
4w ago00:22:04Tap to summarizeMay 20th at Google Marketing Live, I was very fortunate to be able to sit down for ~20 minutes with Nick Fox, SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google. Earlier in the day he had a fireside chat with Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief Semafor. Later that afternoon after I had time to reflect on this conversation, I had a ~20min interview with Nick.It’s not often you get to sit down with one of the top execs at a ~$5T company so I worked a lot of topics into a short time. As always, I try and approach this with you, the audience in mind. What would YOU ask? I had just completed a super tactical Agentic Commerce / UCP/Universal Checkout chat with Ashish, so for this one flipped into high-level strategic mode. In this interview we discuss:How does Nick ‘frame’ AIO/AI Mode/GeminiWill AI Mode/AIO and traditional search transition from traditional to AI Mode or will they merge, or ‘other’ down the road?Google’s had ~5 previous attempts from the Froogle era to today for ‘transactions on Google’ - why is this the moment they are getting super serious about it?Navigating the Innovator’s DilemmaFinally, managing trust at the intersection of ‘Answer engines’ and ‘AI Ads’Timestamps: 01:45 — Scot introduces Nick Fox, Google SVP of Knowledge & Information02:31 — “Search in the AI Era” and Google’s AI strategy03:21 — What this interview covers: AI Mode, Gemini, ads, and commerce04:00 — Why Google believes transactions will work this time 04:33 — The innovator’s dilemma and defending Search 05:16 — Ads, trust, and AI-generated answers 05:52 — Interview begins live from Google Marketing Live 06:23 — How Gemini is “supercharging” Google’s advertising products 06:50 — Ads inside AI Mode and agentic commerce tools 07:11 — Universal Commerce Protocol + Universal Cart 07:26 — Nick Fox on 23 years at Google and the AI era 08:07 — Why Google sees tech shifts as growth accelerators, not disruptions 08:53 — Search vs AI Overviews vs AI Mode vs Gemini explained 09:12 — Google’s “two main products”: Search and Gemini 10:16 — Reinventing the Search box for the AI era 11:01 — Will AI Mode eventually become the default? 12:10 — Google’s philosophy: combining AI + the web 13:00 — Why Google believes users still want the web 13:03 — Gemini “Spark” and agentic capabilities 13:43 — AI agents running 24/7 in the background 14:14 — Using Spark to manage complex tasks like event planning 14:50 — The future of Gemini in the agentic era 14:59 — Google as an economic engine and ad marketplace 15:42 — The innovator’s dilemma and Search resilience 16:04 — “Lean into the technology shifts” philosophy 16:52 — Why Google didn’t see AI as a business-model threat 17:17 — Google’s ad model as a marketplace between users and marketers 18:18 — Why Google Shopping is different this time 19:02 — Why AI enables better shopping confidence and discovery 19:43 — AI helping users get further down the purchase journey 20:24 — Trust, ads, and AI-generated answers 21:04 — Google’s principles for ads in AI experiences 21:31 — “Ads are clearly labeled, separate, and relevant” 21:58 — Closing thoughts and wrap-up👉 Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickthefox/👉 Learn more about Google Marketing Live: https://www.googlemarketinglive.com/digital🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Suresh Ganapathy, Senior Director of Product, Consumer Shopping: Live Google I/O Interview
4w ago00:22:41Tap to summarizeToday at Google I/O, in her part of the larger keynote, VP/GM of Ads and Commerce, Vidhya Srinivasan announced a raft of Agentic Commerce items with the anchor new feature being Universal Cart. After Vidhya’s keynote comments, I was left with these questions that I know merchants will have too:Googlers talk about Universal Cart being available on surfaces like Gmail and YouTube - what’s that actually look like IRL? What are the use cases that merchants can think about and start experimenting with?Universal Cart is coming this Summer - that’s typically June/July/August - that’s a long window in AI-time, early/mid/late Summer?I haven’t heard Google, at least the Agentic Commerce team, talk about AG2 in a while, and suddenly it popped back up in the context of the new consumer agent called Gemini Spark. What’s that all about that.Loyalty (via identity linking) was part of the UCP features announced back on March 19th (details here) but kind of missing here? Even though if you read Vidhya’s blog post very carefully it says that Universal Cart uses “loyalty information”, but it’s not like the Copilot UCP-based loyalty linkage we saw with Target back on April 22 (here if you missed it).That’s a lot of questions - I only had 30mins with Suresh, so had to pick and choose, but we covered some good ground. The good news is I have two more interviews scheduled for Wed 20th at Google Marketing Live and will work them all in.Subscribe, engage and stay tuned for more great Google I/O content coming at you all week! 👉 Connect with Suresh Ganapathy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sureshsganapathy/👉 Learn more about Google I/O: https://io.google/2026/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Elizabeth Lachhar, EVP Americas at Rezolve AI: Is Your Ecommerce Experience Already Outdated?
May 1400:50:35Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Scot sits with Elizabeth Lachhar to unpack Rezolve AI’s end-to-end agentic commerce platform, including its closed retail-trained LLM, Brainpower, and modules across search, discovery, conversational commerce, checkout, and loyalty.A lot of the agentic commerce conversation focuses on offsite experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI shopping agents. But there’s another major shift happening onsite, where retailers are rethinking search, merchandising, conversational commerce, checkout, loyalty, and personalization for an AI-native world.Elizabeth brings a deep enterprise background from Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and more, and now works with retailers, brands, food service, hospitality, and B2B companies navigating this transition.Highlights Why onsite agentic commerce matters just as much as offsite AI shopping agentsHow Rezolve AI approaches search, merchandising, conversational commerce, checkout, loyalty, and geolocationWhy closed, retail-trained LLMs may matter for hallucination, security, and enterprise trustHow conversational commerce can help retailers move beyond flat, 2D ecommerce experiencesWhy B2B discovery is a major agentic commerce use caseHow loyalty, memory, and past purchases can create better personalizationWhat retailers are asking about right now: security, compliance, fraud, ROI, and partner strategyWhy Elizabeth believes agentic commerce is already here, not years awayWhat Generation Alpha could mean for the future of shopping experiences by 2030Agentic commerce is also about rebuilding the onsite experience so retailers can understand, personalize, transact, and convert in a world where consumers expect commerce to be faster, smarter, and more conversational.Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction to Retailgentic 01:34 — Meet Elizabeth Lacchar of Resolve AI 04:18 — Elizabeth’s background at Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and more 07:14 — Why she joined Resolve AI 09:54 — What Resolve AI does 10:32 — The end-to-end agentic commerce platform 11:29 — Quick service, geolocation, and hospitality use cases 13:25 — Search, discovery, merchandising, and visualization 15:08 — B2B catalogs and complex SKU discovery 17:12 — Why agentic commerce is different from legacy site search 18:11 — Resolve’s closed LLM, Brainpower 20:26 — Checkout, wallets, crypto, and international payments 26:02 — Loyalty, data, and the full customer lifecycle 29:50 — Brain Suite, Brain Commerce, Brain Checkout, and Brain Assist 31:09 — Resolve AI’s customer mix 34:22 — Elizabeth’s role as EVP of the Americas 35:55 — Vibe check: where retailers are in adoption 38:31 — Is agentic commerce a race to the bottom? 40:28 — Fraud, bots, security, and guardrails 42:35 — Selling agentic commerce across enterprise teams 46:26 — Predictions for holiday and 2030 49:41 — Where to learn more about Resolve AI👉 Connect with Elizabeth Lachhar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-lachhar/👉 Learn more about Rezolve Ai: https://www.linkedin.com/company/airezolve/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Microsoft Joins Retailgentic! Michele Fisher & Atanu Ghosh on Copilot, Agentic Commerce, Loyalty, Ads, and Does Conversational Discovery Changes Everything?
May 700:48:59Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we sit down with Michele Fisher (Global Director, Business Strategy for Retail & CPG) and Atanu Ghosh (Director of Agentic Commerce & AI Innovation), who sit at the intersection of Azure AI, Copilot, and real-world retail and brand Agentic Commerce implementations.This conversation dives into how Microsoft is thinking about agentic commerce as a full operating model shift, not just a feature or channel.From Copilot shopping to data infrastructure to ads inside LLMs, the discussion connects the dots between:Highlights Conversational discovery is fundamentally different from search: The way people talk about brands inside AI systems looks nothing like traditional keyword behavior, and most companies have zero visibility into it.Agentic commerce is not one thing, it’s an operating model shift: Microsoft defines it broadly: agents participating in discovery, decision-making, and transactions, not just checkout.Copilot + catalog + data = the new commerce stackAds are changing from persuasion to evaluation: Agents don’t care about creative. They evaluate structured data, trust signals, and relevance.Loyalty becomes infrastructure, not a programThe “frontier firm” is the North Star: A future where humans and agents work together across workflows, not just AI acting as an assistant.Protocols like UCP matter more than people realize: Open standards enable discoverability across surfaces and prevent fragmentation in agent-driven ecosystems.The funnel is collapsingIf your brand is still thinking about traffic as the starting point, you’re already behind.In an agentic world, discovery happens before you ever see the user, and increasingly, without them.Timestamps00:00 – Why brands have zero visibility into conversational discovery01:50 – Scot’s “Big 6” podcast goal and Microsoft joins the list04:00 – Michelle & Atanu backgrounds + roles at Microsoft10:00 – What agentic commerce actually means (and why definitions vary)14:00 – Microsoft’s agentic commerce stack: Copilot, agents, data layer18:00 – The “Frontier Firm” and human + agent workflows20:00 – UCP, protocols, and why openness matters23:00 – Loyalty, identity, and friction in agent checkout28:00 – Ads in agentic commerce: from persuasion to evaluation33:00 – First-party data vs. conversational behavior data39:00 – Why most retailers aren’t ready (and what they need first)45:00 – The real blocker: operating models, not technology46:30 – Where to learn more + how leaders are consuming information now👉 Connect with Michele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelekfisher/👉 Connect with Atanu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buildingai/👉 Learn more about Microsoft in AI: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azure-ai-foundry-blog/the-future-of-ai-harnessing-ai-for-e-commerce---personalized-shopping-agents/4386980🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Stephan Ritter, Director Commerce Transformation Deloitte, EU: Agentic Commerce in Europe, The New Battleground is Discovery, The Importance of Product Data and Loyalty!
Apr 3000:50:16Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Retailgentic, Stephan breaks down how agentic commerce is evolving globally, with a particular focus on Europe’s rapid adoption.We explore why AI-driven shopping is accelerating faster than previous technology shifts, how brands are already losing visibility without realizing it, and what practical steps companies can take today to stay competitive.From product data strategy to protocol wars to the future of loyalty, this conversation offers a clear view of where commerce is heading next.Highlights Discovery is the new battleground: If your product is not readable, trustworthy, and rich in context for AI agents, it will not be recommended.Agentic commerce starts before checkout: The most important shift is happening in discovery, comparison, and decision-making, not the final transaction.Europe is moving differently, not slower: Adoption among younger consumers in markets like Germany is already very high, with many using AI in shopping workflows.Product data is now infrastructure: Years of optimizing for search engines are being replaced by the need to structure data for AI systems.Loyalty and identity are becoming core systems: Future commerce will depend heavily on how well brands manage identity, value, and customer relationships across AI ecosystems.Protocols are evolving fast: Systems like UCP and MCP are shaping how agents interact with product data, pricing, and checkout layers.Small experiments already create visibility gains: Even limited API exposure or structured data improvements can increase inclusion in AI-driven recommendations.Agentic commerce is accelerating existing problems: Many of today’s challenges, like poor data quality and disconnected systems, have existed for years but are now becoming urgent.Agentic commerce is already reshaping how products are discovered today, and the brands that adapt fastest will define the next era of retail.Timestamps00:00 – Opening and overview of agentic commerce 02:00 – Who Stefan Ritter is and his background 05:00 – Why agentic commerce adoption is happening faster than mobile 09:00 – What agentic commerce actually means 11:00 – Human vs autonomous decision-making 13:00 – Why context is replacing keywords 16:00 – State of agentic commerce in Europe 20:00 – Data quality and infrastructure challenges 23:00 – AI platforms and protocol landscape 26:00 – Loyalty, identity, and authentication of agents 28:00 – The three opportunity spaces for brands 32:00 – How AI changes product storytelling 36:00 – Events, ecosystem, and European perspective 37:00 – Deloitte research and discovery battleground 39:00 – Retail media and monetization challenges 42:00 – Practical roadmap for brands 46:00 – The future of agentic commerce 49:00 – Closing thoughts and where to follow Stefan👉 Connect with Stephan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanritter/👉 Learn more about Deloitte: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deloitte/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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Krystina Gustafson: Innovating at the Intersection of Content, AI, Agentic Commerce and Digital Retail Conferences...
Apr 2300:44:25Tap to summarizeThis episode goes beyond surface-level AI hype and into how retail organizations are actually responding.Krystina shares what she’s hearing from operators, board members, and data leaders and why the biggest risk right now is moving in the wrong direction.At the same time, we explore how agentic commerce is reshaping traffic, discovery, and brand relationships and what that means for the future of ecommerce.Highlights AI is forcing a full end-to-end transformation of retailMany companies are prioritizing the wrong AI initiatives, focusing on hype instead of P&L impactA growing concern: “dark” or untracked AI-driven traffic is already impacting performanceData strategy is becoming a core battleground: What do you give AI platforms? What do you get back? Do CRMs need to evolve entirely?The real unlock for AI shopping is complex, multi-step purchases (travel, events, planning)The industry is early, but pressure from boards and declining traffic is accelerating adoptionThe future of retail will be defined by who applies it to the right problems.⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — The future of retail data + AI uncertainty 00:47 — Retailgentic intro 03:10 — Kristina Gustafson’s background (CNBC → Shoptalk → RetailClub) 08:02 — Why RetailClub exists: AI needs a verticalized event 10:00 — From “retreat” to “festival” 12:00 — Intimacy vs scale in events 17:00 — What “festival format” actually means 20:00 — RetailClub themes: full AI transformation of retail 26:00 — How Kristina tracks AI trends (75%+ of her time) 28:00 — AI prioritization problem inside companies 29:00 — Data, CRMs, and “dark agentic traffic” 30:00 — Traffic decline + board pressure 36:30 — Agentic commerce: what actually works 38:00 — Why brands won’t fully disappear 40:00 — RetailClub details + closing👉 Connect with Krystina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystina-gustafson-908a5a14/👉 Learn more about RetailClub: https://retailclub.com/🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
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