More AI & Ecommerce News

OpenAI publishes country-by-country data showing ChatGPT users are now twice as likely to complete tasks than seek answers, with adoption surging across Latin America, Africa, and Oceania.

New research reveals a blind spot in ecommerce analytics: brands can track on-site conversions but have no visibility into how AI answer engines include or exclude them from recommendations.

Shopify publishes a step-by-step guide on using OpenAI Agent Builder to create custom AI agents for order tracking, cart recovery, and customer service automation.

Shopify releases a detailed guide on contextual commerce, covering social shopping, shoppable blog content, and agentic commerce — with 64% of shoppers now likely to use AI when purchasing.

Walmart is training store-level employees to use AI widely throughout the organization, signaling the retail giant's push to embed AI into daily operations.

Shopify reports that AI-driven traffic to stores grew 8 times year over year in Q1 2026, with orders from AI-powered searches increasing nearly 13 times.

Regional grocer Schnucks partners with VitalityIP to launch an AI assistant for nutrition guidance and personalized shopping — a model for how AI agents could eventually take over the entire shopping process.

OpenAI introduces product carousels to ChatGPT ads, allowing multiple products to appear in a single ad placement — a significant step toward full shopping integration.

Arts and crafts retailer Michaels reveals its Google Gemini-powered AI assistant 'Ask Mike' converts at more than double the rate of traditional search, with 27% of interactions leading to product clicks or add-to-cart.

Kroger's AI shopping assistant includes product listing ads at launch, following the pattern set by Walmart and OpenAI's ChatGPT in monetizing AI shopping.

Bain & Company and Morgan Stanley project that agentic AI could account for 15-25% of total US e-commerce by 2030, with up to $385 billion influenced by AI agents.