We're developing loyalty to AI shopping personalities (ChatGPT vs Claude) the same way we trusted favorite salespeople. Except this one never forgets your preferences and never has a bad day.
Indeed. And how many times have you had a salesperson move brands? Whereas this salesperson is technically not married to any one brand or product. (except for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google...)
Just wait another two years or so, when consumer-side AI agents start becoming mainstream at the same time as digital IDs. Now the consumer has a tool in their hand that can go search for, say, a rental car hire, communicate with all rental companies, barter for better prices/more loyalty points/free extras/etc and arrange and pay for the booking - at the same time only agreeing to share a limited amount of personal data with a strict time limit on its use. Brands that fail to build experiences, emotion, empathy, and humanity into their offerings will not be differentiated and will be commoditised by the agents. Buying will be a three-way relationship, brands will have to communicate with AI better than they do with consumers.
Thanks Michael. You're hitting on one of my absolute favorite hypotheticals, what happens when all parties use AI? In this case both the seller and the buyer.
And AI has a longer attention span than humans, which will force brands to tell their story more comprehensively. I think that might help the brands that already focus on storytelling, I am actually *here* for that change.
Last week, a friend told me he bought three project management tools after asking ChatGPT what would work best for his team. He didn't compare prices or read reviews. He trusted the AI's advice.
^^^ Not sure if I should be terrified or excited??
Start here: Make sure your product descriptions are detailed (not just specs - explain when/why someone would buy it). Then apply to OpenAI’s merchant program: openai.com/chatgpt/search-product-discovery/
If you’re on Shopify or Etsy, you’re automatically eligible for their new Instant Checkout feature.
(If you have a developer, ask them to make sure “OAI-SearchBot” can crawl your site.)
A PR friend recently asked me if I thought AI knew what was “cool” or if it could be cool.
I don’t actually. It’s always going to pick something highly “relevant,” but just because something is heavily cited doesn’t make it cool.
And my sister and I recently gave it a shopping test. Her pick, which she found manually, was far superior. ChatGPT failed, Claude did provide one passable possibility (with her and me as judge).
TL;DR I can see why you’d say that, for certain categories of product. But… that’s just as of today…
Great context for the rise in agentic shopping. Ecommerce and "endless aisle" feels so passé (and impersonal). This next wave in AI-enabled shopping is all about knowing you on a very personal level!
I’m curious for @Jhong’s response to this. To me, the new focus needs to be on true unique value and quality, answering customers questions with content, rather than the current seo focus on a specific keyword or a focus on backlinks, which can be manufactured.
I think Joel asked me to collab after reading my post on the evolution from SEO -> GEO. One of the points I make is that Google is still 375x larger when it comes to search traffic. ChatGPT accounts for only 1% of search. Although this was as of March... I'm sure it's moved since then, but hard for it to make a sizable dent yet.
Google's owned this space for a decade and a half, only this past Jan did their dominance dip below 90%. And I actually think it's Gen Z and Alpha using TikTok and Pinterest for search that's helped make that number come down (unverified! just a theory).
We're still in the "in-between" part, so leaders can prepare accordingly.
To quote myself, which feels odd to do, "Brands must write for humans but structure for machines."
Thanks JHong, this is a great answer! And I also think that your theory might be spot on. I also think that reddit is a huge sleeper opportunity here, and wonder if that might also have added to the dip?
Oh that is interesting... seeing as LLMs rely on Reddit so heavily.
It's made me wonder what kinds of moves Reddit and Wikipedia might make, seeing as they're the source material for so many AI datasets. And also what kind of resurgence in relevance they're enjoying now.
Sidenote: for brands to advertise on Reddit, they have to have an organic account on there. Which stopped us (when I was at Banana Republic) from advertising with them. This was back in 2021... they may have shifted policies since.
Maybe we should all be looking at Reddit's moves more closely in this space!
What I love most about this native check-out development...
Before the pilot was announced in July, I was betting on "GEM." Generative Engine Marketing, meaning paid ads dropping into AI results. And I thought the acronym was cute too.
OpenAI didn't just copy how other publishers are monetizing. This isn't about buying eyeballs. They take a cut from the sale. So now they get to be a meta-influencer. Or something more resembling affiliate, getting a cut of a sale they influenced.
And to your point... there's no thread visible to other users to add trashy comments to!
Yes, really interesting. We're taking that first response as gospel with full trust. Gemini does it with google search too... nobody has time to read and research anymore.
For now it actually feels completely unlike a sponsored post or a product-listing ad that's been pushed to you. Which, to be fair, just because a brand buys a keyword doesn't mean it's the best product for what one is seeking. Instead, it feels like AI has culled through all the browsing and curated a custom shopping list for you.
And for me, I'm not going to read all the ingredients on a web listing for a moisturizer. I also didn't know that the brand ROC had rebranded retinol with their own made-up name. But ChatGPT did!
This is the AI commerce playbook in action. Businesses that become the “answer AI recommends” will outpace everyone else; time to rethink discovery, trust, and customer relationships.
Exactly! The shift from “be found” to “be recommended” changes everything. Brands that optimize for being the AI’s top answer - not just ranking well - will own the new discovery layer. It’s less about traffic volume and more about being the trusted source the AI surfaces first.
I always say women/wives are the CEOs of the family business. She owns the wallet.
Every brand I've worked for, even if the predominant offering is men's apparel, the person I am marketing to is a woman. She's, more often than not, 65% of the audience and purchasing power.
So it's more like... women/wives now get an Agent.
Thanks for reading Daria. It’s so commonplace now, people use AI to problem-solve and often that problem can be solved with a purchase. For better or for worse!
We're developing loyalty to AI shopping personalities (ChatGPT vs Claude) the same way we trusted favorite salespeople. Except this one never forgets your preferences and never has a bad day.
Indeed. And how many times have you had a salesperson move brands? Whereas this salesperson is technically not married to any one brand or product. (except for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google...)
Just wait another two years or so, when consumer-side AI agents start becoming mainstream at the same time as digital IDs. Now the consumer has a tool in their hand that can go search for, say, a rental car hire, communicate with all rental companies, barter for better prices/more loyalty points/free extras/etc and arrange and pay for the booking - at the same time only agreeing to share a limited amount of personal data with a strict time limit on its use. Brands that fail to build experiences, emotion, empathy, and humanity into their offerings will not be differentiated and will be commoditised by the agents. Buying will be a three-way relationship, brands will have to communicate with AI better than they do with consumers.
Insightful take! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Michael. You're hitting on one of my absolute favorite hypotheticals, what happens when all parties use AI? In this case both the seller and the buyer.
And AI has a longer attention span than humans, which will force brands to tell their story more comprehensively. I think that might help the brands that already focus on storytelling, I am actually *here* for that change.
Last week, a friend told me he bought three project management tools after asking ChatGPT what would work best for his team. He didn't compare prices or read reviews. He trusted the AI's advice.
^^^ Not sure if I should be terrified or excited??
Haha @Joel Salinas will have to keep us updated on how that works out for his friend.
My post-script, I’d buy all the skincare again. No reactions since!
Haha he went down to just one, Asana :)
It would be great to learn HOW to adapt these Immediate steps into my e-commerce website to train AI
Hi Kishore.
Start here: Make sure your product descriptions are detailed (not just specs - explain when/why someone would buy it). Then apply to OpenAI’s merchant program: openai.com/chatgpt/search-product-discovery/
If you’re on Shopify or Etsy, you’re automatically eligible for their new Instant Checkout feature.
(If you have a developer, ask them to make sure “OAI-SearchBot” can crawl your site.)
Is it weird that I just don’t trust any of them yet?
AI recommending products.
I see.
A PR friend recently asked me if I thought AI knew what was “cool” or if it could be cool.
I don’t actually. It’s always going to pick something highly “relevant,” but just because something is heavily cited doesn’t make it cool.
And my sister and I recently gave it a shopping test. Her pick, which she found manually, was far superior. ChatGPT failed, Claude did provide one passable possibility (with her and me as judge).
TL;DR I can see why you’d say that, for certain categories of product. But… that’s just as of today…
Them… as in AIs recommending products? Or LLMs in general..
Great context for the rise in agentic shopping. Ecommerce and "endless aisle" feels so passé (and impersonal). This next wave in AI-enabled shopping is all about knowing you on a very personal level!
Thanks Marcus! It’s no longer about “you always have options.” It’s now “here’s the best option I found for you.”
Or perhaps in the case of Arcade AI “here’s the physical manifestation of your dreams.” 🙂
I could feel my brain getting bigger as I read this.
So glad to hear that!
Excellent article. Do you think that really focussing on effective GEO and AEO is now an essential part of any potential seller's strategy?
I’m curious for @Jhong’s response to this. To me, the new focus needs to be on true unique value and quality, answering customers questions with content, rather than the current seo focus on a specific keyword or a focus on backlinks, which can be manufactured.
Thanks for reading Sam.
I think Joel asked me to collab after reading my post on the evolution from SEO -> GEO. One of the points I make is that Google is still 375x larger when it comes to search traffic. ChatGPT accounts for only 1% of search. Although this was as of March... I'm sure it's moved since then, but hard for it to make a sizable dent yet.
Google's owned this space for a decade and a half, only this past Jan did their dominance dip below 90%. And I actually think it's Gen Z and Alpha using TikTok and Pinterest for search that's helped make that number come down (unverified! just a theory).
We're still in the "in-between" part, so leaders can prepare accordingly.
To quote myself, which feels odd to do, "Brands must write for humans but structure for machines."
Thanks JHong, this is a great answer! And I also think that your theory might be spot on. I also think that reddit is a huge sleeper opportunity here, and wonder if that might also have added to the dip?
Oh that is interesting... seeing as LLMs rely on Reddit so heavily.
It's made me wonder what kinds of moves Reddit and Wikipedia might make, seeing as they're the source material for so many AI datasets. And also what kind of resurgence in relevance they're enjoying now.
Sidenote: for brands to advertise on Reddit, they have to have an organic account on there. Which stopped us (when I was at Banana Republic) from advertising with them. This was back in 2021... they may have shifted policies since.
Maybe we should all be looking at Reddit's moves more closely in this space!
100%! I also keep being approached by companies to advertise on my account, which is organic (and David Bowie inspired): https://www.reddit.com/user/calliope_kekule/.
Not sure how they expect me to do this without being trashed by other Reddit users… 🤣
Hahaha! I didn’t know you were so active on Reddit!
It’s where I like to lurk the most. 😉 Very different USP there though…
What I love most about this native check-out development...
Before the pilot was announced in July, I was betting on "GEM." Generative Engine Marketing, meaning paid ads dropping into AI results. And I thought the acronym was cute too.
OpenAI didn't just copy how other publishers are monetizing. This isn't about buying eyeballs. They take a cut from the sale. So now they get to be a meta-influencer. Or something more resembling affiliate, getting a cut of a sale they influenced.
And to your point... there's no thread visible to other users to add trashy comments to!
It's sooo interesting, wonder what it will look like in 2-3 yrs.
Yes, really interesting. We're taking that first response as gospel with full trust. Gemini does it with google search too... nobody has time to read and research anymore.
For now it actually feels completely unlike a sponsored post or a product-listing ad that's been pushed to you. Which, to be fair, just because a brand buys a keyword doesn't mean it's the best product for what one is seeking. Instead, it feels like AI has culled through all the browsing and curated a custom shopping list for you.
And for me, I'm not going to read all the ingredients on a web listing for a moisturizer. I also didn't know that the brand ROC had rebranded retinol with their own made-up name. But ChatGPT did!
This is the AI commerce playbook in action. Businesses that become the “answer AI recommends” will outpace everyone else; time to rethink discovery, trust, and customer relationships.
Exactly! The shift from “be found” to “be recommended” changes everything. Brands that optimize for being the AI’s top answer - not just ranking well - will own the new discovery layer. It’s less about traffic volume and more about being the trusted source the AI surfaces first.
What it means for business leaders:
they will get all their money spent by WifeAgent 😃
Now you don’t have to read the article 👋🏻👌🏻
I always say women/wives are the CEOs of the family business. She owns the wallet.
Every brand I've worked for, even if the predominant offering is men's apparel, the person I am marketing to is a woman. She's, more often than not, 65% of the audience and purchasing power.
So it's more like... women/wives now get an Agent.
Agreed, but she better not screw it up… or else ! Haha ✊🏻
Yeah, that would be an interesting and equally entertaining proposition… 😀
Great depiction of how shopping works nowadays
Thanks for reading Daria. It’s so commonplace now, people use AI to problem-solve and often that problem can be solved with a purchase. For better or for worse!