Article

Future of eCommerce and AI

How AI moved from experiment to core capability in commerce, and what brands should do about it.

Barrett Ahern and Liam Quinn · Vervaunt · Published May 2025 · Updated 5 Nov 2026

This is a summary. The full article is on Vervaunt's site. It is based on a Pulse eCommerce Summit '25 session.

Concentric rings representing an AI agent connected by one line to three commerce tools

The article argues that AI in commerce has moved from novelty to necessity, and that brands need to adapt across content, search visibility and automation.

It covers machine learning, generative AI, visibility inside large language models, agentic AI and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), then closes with predictions for the year ahead.

67%

of 100+ eCommerce brands surveyed had no company-wide AI strategy.

Survey cited in the original article, May 2025. Reported by the authors, not independently checked.

What the article argues

Data analysis is becoming conversational. Language models let people without a data science background query data in plain terms.
Generative content is production-ready. Text, product imagery and code can be produced faster and at lower cost than a photoshoot or a build.
Search visibility is shifting. AI Overviews reportedly reduced click-through, so structured data, E-E-A-T and tracking presence in LLMs matter.
Agentic AI acts on its own. Agents can run back-end operations, handle customer service proactively and buy on a user's behalf.
MCP adds business context. It connects AI to a company's own products, sales data and tools.
Human creativity becomes the differentiator. The authors predict that more than half of product assets will be AI-generated.