Can retailers resist AI Platforms? I don’t think so..
Agentic Commerce is in a state of flux. While the AI platforms provide a glimpse of what conversational commerce will look like, most aren’t able to complete a transaction.
Shopify and OpenAi are leading the way in creating a best in class integration that will change all that (see overview). For the millions of merchants on Shopify’s platform, participating in the conversational AI revolution will become as simple as flicking a switch. Shopify is handling the backend (real-time product data/inventory, payment and checkout). I love Shopify; their execution is consistently flawless, and I have no doubt this will be another seamless, successful product launch.
Shopify will solve the tech.. BUT I can’t help but ask myself: what is left for the retailer? Distribution? Shopify is providing its merchants with a gilded on-ramp to a system that systematically strips them of their most valuable assets: the customer relationship, CX, pricing, product and the brand narrative.
When a consumer interacts with a generalized AI assistant to buy a product, who owns that conversation? Who learns from the nuances of the user’s prompts, their hesitations, their preferences? It’s not the retailer. The AI platform captures that invaluable pre-purchase data, while the retailer is simply passed a fulfillment order. The entire art of merchandising is bypassed. The retailer’s unique voice is replaced by the homogenized voice of the AI. They are being relegated to the role of a silent, invisible logistics and support node. If that’s the end game, why have retailers at all? Why wouldn’t platformes work with OEMs to enhance the DTC model?
Retailer Deja Vu – All Over Again
This isn’t a new story; it’s the logical evolution of a pattern we’ve seen before. A decade ago, small retailers flocked to the Amazon Marketplace, trading brand control and customer data for access to a massive audience. They became dependent, forced into a brutal, price-driven race to the bottom while Amazon owned the customer. We saw it with the App Store, where developers gained access to billions of users but ceded control over discovery and customer relations to Apple.
The rise of AI platforms is the next great consolidation. The difference is that this time, the platform isn’t just a channel; it aims to be the entire experience, absorbing the roles of search engine, personal shopper, and point of sale into a single conversational interface.
The AI Void and the Broken Internet Economy
This shift is happening in concert with the systematic dismantling of the internet’s core business model. As Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has highlighted, the quid pro quo of the web is broken. For fifteen years, the model was simple: creators and publishers made content, Google crawled it, and in return, Google sent traffic that could be monetized. It was a symbiotic relationship.
AI platforms obliterate this exchange. Prince’s data is stark: where Google was 2 to 1, OpenAI consumes 250 pages of content for a single user action; for Anthropic, it’s a staggering 6,000 to one. These platforms ingest information from product reviews, blogs, and retailers’ own websites, then synthesize it to provide a direct answer, often without credit or a link. The value is extracted, and nothing is given in return.
The entire top-of-funnel content marketing strategy that eCommerce brands have invested billions in over the last decade (blogs, buying guides, social) is at risk of being rendered worthless. Why would a customer read your detailed review of the “Top 5 Tents for Backpacking” when their AI can summarize it and provide a “buy now” link for the cheapest option?
The Retailer’s Last Stand
So, can retailers say no? Can Google or Amazon architect a model that preserves the status quo?
The answer to the latter is likely no; the agentic model is too powerful. As for the former, refusing the firehose of fully-qualified demand (purchase order with a payment instrument) from an AI platform will be commercially untenable. However, retailers are not without leverage. Their last defensible moat lies in the messy, physical reality of commerce. AI platforms have no warehouses, no distribution networks, and no desire to handle the 30% return rate on apparel. They are not equipped for the operational nightmare of customer support, multi-location inventory management, and fraud mitigation. This is the retailer’s stronghold.
The strategic imperative, therefore, is to double down on retaining your customer data, product data and operational excellence. The post-purchase experience is the new battlefield. Flawless fulfillment, rapid and free shipping, frictionless returns, and proactive customer service are no longer just competitive advantages; they are fundamental to survival. This is the tangible value that AI cannot replicate. It’s the only part of the experience they don’t want to own, and retailers must make it their signature strength.
The path forward is treacherous. Engaging with these AI platforms feels inevitable, but it must be done with extreme prejudice. Retailers, perhaps through unified fronts, must fight for better terms, for data ownership, and for a model that is more than just a glorified affiliate link. They must simultaneously invest fiercely in their own data, CX, channels and brand experiences to keep their core customers close.
We are at a precipice. The convenience of AI-driven commerce is undeniable, but the cost is autonomy. For retailers, the choice is becoming painfully clear: become a best-in-class logistics operation, or prepare to be rendered obsolete.
Indeed, AI platforms are moving towards a structure where retailers can be reduced to mere invisible logistics operators. Experience, narrative, customer relations… all of this is absorbed by a conversational assistant that makes decisions for the user. And yes, that risk exists.
But this is not the end. It is a turning point. And the worst thing retail can do is wait for others to design the rules.
AI is not the enemy. But it is not neutral either. If you don’t prepare your environment to use it, you will end up being used by it. The status quo will not preserve itself. We must take the initiative and redefine it from a new technological sovereignty.
Retailers must stop thinking like channels and start thinking like ecosystems. This means training their own assistants, with their catalogue, their voice and their narrative. It means activating their data, protecting it and turning it into a competitive advantage. It means understanding that the after-sales cycle is no longer a logistical add-on, but a real opportunity to shine: flawless fulfilment, frictionless returns and impeccable human service are strengths that no AI can match.
Integration with AI platforms will be inevitable. But it must be done from a negotiated, informed and strategic position. Giving up the soul of the customer experience in exchange for an immediate purchase order is not digital transformation: it is commercial dissolution.
The question is not whether AI will dominate commerce. The question is whether commerce will decide what role it wants to play in this new order.
AI is not going to take your job. But it can decide whether you work or not. And if you don’t make yourself heard within the system, it may not even mention you.