AI & Hyper-Personalisation: The Future of Commerce

AI agents are quietly reshaping the way we shop, making commerce more personal, conversational, and value-led. Find out what this shift means for your brand.

By Chris Price

The way people shop online is changing. AI agents are starting to take over routine tasks. They help users explore products, offer tailored suggestions, and in some cases, even complete purchases.

Instead of scrolling through endless pages, customers now expect a shopping experience that feels more personal and much easier. This shift is changing the online journey and how businesses attract and keep their customers.

The age of hyper-personalisation isn’t coming. It’s already shaping how people shop and how brands respond. In this article, we’ll explore key changes and how your business can keep up.

1. The end of search-as-we-know-it

Search has always been central to online retail. But that model is starting to fall behind. As Mike King, a technologist and marketing expert, explains in a recent article on AI Mode, large language models (LLMs) are changing what search looks like. These tools are built to understand what people really want, not just answer questions.

This is likely to change how people find products. Instead of typing into a search bar and clicking through results, users will turn to AI agents that understand their needs and show more relevant options. To stay visible, brands will need to adapt to this shift, where visibility depends on how AI ranks and selects content.

Tip: Rework your search approach. Move beyond keywords. Use structured data, focus on strong content, and ensure your products can be read and understood by AI tools.

2. Commerce becomes conversation

Online shopping is becoming more like a conversation than a click-based journey. An AI agent might ask about price limits, style preferences or shopping habits, then suggest options that match.

This new format rewards brands that can deliver useful responses based on context. It’s not just about what you sell, but how your brand fits into these personalised exchanges. Consider what values the agent associates with your products. How can you ensure your offering is recommended over competitors?

Tip: Audit your product data and brand messaging. Are you clearly communicating your unique value and product quality in a way AI agents can recognise and use?

3. Self-sovereign agents will reshape loyalty

Most AI agents today are controlled by large platforms like Google or Amazon. But a new idea is gaining ground: self-sovereign agents. These tools are designed to serve the individual. They act based on personal input and don’t rely on third-party platforms.

Eric Bravick, a leading technologist, supports this approach. He sees this as the only way forward for users to regain control in the age of intelligent machines.

This could shift how loyalty works. Instead of optimising for platform algorithms, businesses will need to build direct relationships with customers and their digital agents. That means giving straightforward information that their agents can trust.

Tip: Test loyalty tools that work with customer-owned agents. Let users decide what data they share and make it worthwhile for them to do so.

4. Hyper-personalisation at scale

AI agents are making personalisation easier to deliver. They learn from past actions, spot habits, and can even predict what someone might need next. They also filter out anything that doesn’t match.

For brands, this is a huge opportunity. Businesses that support this kind of personalisation are already seeing better engagement and stronger customer loyalty.

According to McKinsey, companies using AI in this way are gaining more attention from customers and getting better results from their marketing efforts.

Tip: Start gathering user preference data with full transparency. Use it to improve how you recommend products, shape email content and support customer questions.

5. Marketing must become value-led

When an AI agent chooses what a customer sees, traditional ads carry less weight. It’s no longer enough to interrupt. You need to be part of the journey in a way that adds real value.

In this world, decisions are based on facts, not quick impressions. Long-term value and a solid reputation are what count.

Tip: Shift your marketing content to focus on solving problems and adding value. Think about what an agent would consider useful when making a choice on behalf of the customer.

6. Prepare your tech stack now

To achieve success in this new era of hyper personalisation, your systems need to be ready. This means having clear, accurate data about availability, delivery, pricing and product details.

Other industries are already applying this thinking. Descrybe.ai is a legal tech platform built to make complex research faster and easier. It reads huge volumes of legal documents, turns them into plain-language summaries, and answers natural-language questions in real time.

Commerce needs the same structure. AI agents rely on clear, well-organised content to make decisions. Every product description, FAQ, review and delivery detail should be easy to access and ready to use.

Tip: Think of every product detail as something an AI might read. Keep it simple, structured and easy to find. Learn from others who are already doing it well.

Final thoughts

The future of shopping won’t be shaped by how loud your ads are or how fast your site loads. It will depend on how well you support AI-driven customer journeys. Buyers will expect smarter, smoother and more tailored experiences. Businesses need to show up in ways that feel genuinely helpful.

Those who move early won’t just keep up. They’ll become the trusted choice in a world where AI guides what we buy.

About the author

Chris Price has been a journalist since the 1990s. In addition to editing TechDigest.tv and ShinyShiny.tv, he also regularly contributes tech/business articles to The Daily Telegraph and Tech Radar. A passionate swimmer, Chris has his own swimming blog and is a qualified lifeguard.