AI x Commerce: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping the Future of Shopping

The way we buy and sell things is changing faster than ever, and artificial intelligence (AI) is leading the charge. From how we search for products to how we make final purchases, AI is quietly transforming every step of the commerce journey. But what does this mean for big companies like Google, Amazon, and Shopify? And how will it affect everyday shoppers like you and me? Let’s break it down.

Is Google in Trouble? Maybe—but Not for the Reasons You Might Think

For a long time, the internet’s most successful business model has been simple: making money from search ads, but only on certain types of searches. If you look up “how many protons are in a cesium atom,” Google doesn’t make a penny. But if you search “best tennis racket,” that’s where the money comes in.

This difference is what makes the search economy work. Some searches are just about satisfying curiosity, while others show that someone is ready to buy something. It’s part of why Google—where people often search for products—is worth $2 trillion, while Wikipedia—where people look up facts—is a non-profit.

Here’s an interesting point: Google could lose 95% of its total search volume and still make more money—as long as it keeps the searches that matter most. These are the ones tied to buying decisions. The question is: Can Google keep these valuable searches from moving to AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity?

Maybe, but there have been some worrying signs. In May 2025, Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue testified in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust trial that search volume on Safari (Apple’s web browser) had dropped for the first time in over 20 years. The result? Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw its stock price drop nearly 8% in one day, wiping out more than $150 billion in value. All because people might be using AI instead of traditional search.

But if we fast-forward to Google’s recent earnings reports, things look better. The company’s revenue—including from search—has kept growing. This suggests that Google is probably only losing the low-value searches, at least for now.

AI is first taking over the searches that don’t make money for Google—those with no commercial intent, just informational needs. If a language model can tell you how many protons are in cesium, Google loses that search but not any revenue. The real test will come when AI starts replacing searches like “best laptop for students” or “most durable running shoes”—the ones where people are actually planning to buy something. This shift is coming, but not all types of shopping will be affected the same way. Some will be taken over by AI, some will stay the same, and others will become opportunities for new companies.

What Is “Commerce,” and Where Does AI Fit In?

To understand how AI will change shopping, let’s split purchases into five main categories. They’re ordered by how much thought and research goes into each one:

1. 「Impulse buys」 – Think of the chocolate bar by the grocery store checkout or a funny T-shirt you see while scrolling through TikTok Shop. You don’t plan to buy these—you see them and decide on the spot, with no research.

2. 「Routine essentials」 – These are the things you buy regularly: groceries, dog food, cleaning supplies, diapers. You might do a little research the first time, but after that, you usually just grab what’s convenient and reasonably priced.

3. 「Lifestyle purchases」 – Items like nice skincare, a fancy handbag, or home decor. You don’t need these, but you want them. You’ll probably do some online research and read reviews before buying.

4. 「Functional purchases」 – Things like a commuter bike, furniture, a laptop, or a phone. These are expensive for most people, so you’ll do a lot of research—maybe visit stores and talk to experts—before deciding.

5. 「Life purchases」 – Major events or items like a house, a wedding, or a college degree. These require months (or even years) of research, and you’ll carefully weigh all your options.

There’s a sixth category we won’t dive deep into here: 「aspirational purchases」. These are things you dream about buying someday—maybe a luxury handbag, a sports car, or a vacation home—after saving up or getting a promotion. Everyone’s aspirational purchases are different, but AI might help you pick the exact model you want or track prices and availability.

How the Internet Changed Shopping—And What AI Might Do Next

Before the internet, shopping looked very different. You’d go to a store, talk to salespeople, and rely on word-of-mouth for recommendations. The internet made it possible to compare prices, read reviews, and buy from anywhere. Now, AI is set to take this a step further.

Let’s look at how AI might impact each of the five main purchase categories, with some early examples of what’s already happening:

1. Impulse Buys: AI Will Get Better at Grabbing Your Attention

Impulse buys are all about split-second decisions—you don’t research them, so AI probably won’t help you decide. But AI will make the ads and recommendations for these items smarter.

Advertisers will use AI to show you the right product at the right time. For example, if you’re watching an Instagram Reel about Mother’s Day gifts, an AI could immediately show you an ad for a candle with your mom’s name engraved on it. Thanks to AI, creating personalized images and ads like this is getting easier and cheaper to do at scale.

2. Routine Essentials: AI Could Automate Your Regular Shopping

For everyday items, you probably already have favorite brands. If you always buy the same laundry detergent or toothpaste, an AI “agent” (a program that acts on your behalf) might not help you choose a new one—unless your situation changes, like getting a dog and needing to pick dog food for the first time.

But AI can make buying these essentials easier. Imagine your AI agent tracks your detergent usage. It knows you’ll run out in two weeks, so it watches for sales and buys it automatically when the price drops below what you’re willing to pay.

You might already know tools like camelcamelcamel, which lets you set price alerts for Amazon products. The next step is AI agents that can do this across multiple stores, not just one. They could even coordinate with your calendar—buying more paper towels before your big party, for example.

3. Lifestyle Purchases: AI Will Do the Research for You

Lifestyle purchases—like a nice jacket or a stylish coffee maker—are things you don’t buy often. They’re a bit pricey, so you want to pick the best one, but researching all the options takes time.

This is where AI can help. Imagine telling an AI agent, “I need a winter coat that’s warm, stylish, and fits my budget.” The agent would look at your past purchases, know your size and favorite colors, and even consider things like your job (do you walk to work in the snow?) to recommend the perfect coat. It would explain why one specific coat is better for you than others.

We’re already seeing early versions of this. For example, Plush is a tool that helps people search for women’s fashion items with more personalized results. In the future, these tools will get better at researching across more brands and stores.

4. Functional Purchases: AI Could Act as Your Personal Expert

Functional purchases—like a laptop or a sofa—are big investments. You’ll use them every day for years, so you need to be sure they’re right. You might trust an AI’s recommendation, but you’ll probably want to ask questions, too.

This is where AI “consultants” come in. Instead of just getting a list of options, you could have a phone or video call with an AI that knows everything about, say, sofas. It would ask about your living room size, how many people sit on it, and if you have kids or pets. Then it would explain why one sofa is better than another, across different brands.

Right now, some stores offer this kind of help, but only for their own products. The next step is AI consultants that know about all brands in a category. And they’ll remember you—if they help you buy a sofa, they’ll later recommend chairs that match it.

5. Life Purchases: AI Will Guide You, But You’ll Make the Final Call

Life purchases—like a house or a wedding—are rare and huge. You’ll spend months or years researching, and you’ll probably talk to human experts (real estate agents, wedding planners) and check things out in person (touring houses, visiting wedding venues).

It’s hard to imagine letting an AI make these decisions for you. But AI could act as a coach, guiding you through the process. It could help you research options, list the pros and cons of each, and even help with negotiations or reading contracts (some people already use AI tools like Claude to review legal documents).

For example, if you’re buying a house, an AI could track listings that match your needs, compare mortgage options, and flag things to ask your real estate agent. It would save you time, but you’d still be the one to decide which house feels like home.

What About Food, Travel, and Healthcare?

You might notice we haven’t talked much about food, travel, or healthcare. That’s because they’re hard to fit into just one category—they depend on the person.

For some people, a nice dinner or a weekend trip is routine—no research needed. For others, it’s a splurge, and an AI could help find the best option. Healthcare is trickier because many expenses are out of our control (like doctor’s visits or prescriptions). But AI could still help by pointing patients to better treatments, doctors, or procedures.

Why Amazon and Shopify Are in a Good Position

Google isn’t the only big player affected by AI in commerce. Amazon and Shopify could face changes too—but they’re better positioned than you might think.

Amazon owns almost every part of the shopping process: search, delivery, data on what you reorder, and (importantly) product reviews. It’s like a one-stop shop for commerce. Even if people start using AI instead of Google to search, Amazon itself is a search engine for products. Plus, its Prime membership program—with hundreds of millions of users—keeps people coming back.

Shopify helps small businesses sell online: it hosts their product listings, handles checkouts, and lets brands sell directly to customers. Now, with Shop Pay and the Shop App, it’s also building tools for shoppers.

As AI agents become a common way to buy things, both Amazon and Shopify have advantages. Amazon controls everything from search to delivery. Shopify works with millions of stores, so even if a search starts on Google or ChatGPT, if the store uses Shopify, Shopify still benefits.

Google could fight back, though. It has a huge user base, technical skills, and Google Pay for payments. It might create new AI tools—like a “smart shopping app” that combines price tracking (like camelcamelcamel) with AI recommendations.

What Needs to Happen for AI to Transform Commerce

AI agents can’t reach their full potential in shopping unless some big changes happen first. Here are the key things that need to improve:

1. Better Data: AI Needs Trustworthy Information

Right now, AI is limited by the quality of the information it can get. Most product reviews are noisy—some are fake, some are overly positive or negative, and some aren’t helpful. AI agents need access to clear, honest, up-to-date feedback.

Imagine you want the “best” blender. Ideally, your AI would buy every blender, test them in your kitchen (maybe with a home robot!), see which one you like, and send the rest back. But today, AI can only summarize what’s online. It can’t turn bad or fake reviews into good advice.

2. Unified APIs: AI Needs to Talk to All Stores

For AI agents to go from recommending products to actually buying them, they need to work with all kinds of stores. This means:

• Pulling accurate, real-time data: Is the product in stock? What’s the current price?
• Adding items to carts across different websites.
• Checking out automatically for you, no matter which store you’re buying from.

Right now, each store has its own system, making this hard. We need统一的接口 (unified APIs)—sort of like a common language—that lets AI agents work with any store.

3. Identity and Memory: AI Needs to Know You

AI agents need to remember your preferences, past buys, and what you consider a “good deal.” But this memory has to be smart. Your preferences change: you might splurge on flights but want cheap toothpaste. You might return cotton sweaters often but never wool ones.

An AI’s “memory” needs to keep up with these changes and understand the differences between what you want for different purchases.

4. Embedded Capture: AI Needs to Learn as You Shop

The best AI shopping tools will learn from you as you go. They’ll pick up on things that aren’t in product descriptions or reviews. For example:

• They might ask, “How did you like that new shampoo?” the next time you open the app.
• They might notice you’re spending a lot of time looking at a jacket’s pockets and ask, “Do you need extra storage?”

This helps the AI make better recommendations over time.

The Future of AI in Commerce

For now, AI is mostly good at summarizing information. But as these four changes happen, it will become a true shopping helper—recommending, buying, and even negotiating on your behalf.

The middle categories of shopping—routine essentials, lifestyle purchases, and functional purchases—will probably be the first to be transformed by AI. Impulse buys will get more personalized, and life purchases will get AI help but stay in your control.

Big companies like Google, Amazon, and Shopify are all racing to adapt, but there will be new opportunities for startups too. The key will be making AI that’s trustworthy, easy to use, and truly understands what shoppers want.

As AI gets better at handling the boring parts of shopping—researching, comparing, and even buying—we’ll have more time to focus on what matters: finding the things that make our lives better. And that’s a future worth looking forward to.