Agentic commerce in action: What Commerce showcased at NRF and why it matters for ecommerce leaders

The future of ecommerce is no longer theoretical. At NRF, we brought it to life.

At our booth, we hosted two live demos that showed how agentic commerce is already reshaping product discovery, search, and checkout. Together, these sessions illustrated how AI-powered agents are changing how shoppers find products, how brands show up in AI-driven experiences, and how commerce leaders can prepare for what’s next.

Here’s a closer look at what we demonstrated and why it matters for brands navigating the next era of ecommerce.

Why agentic commerce is becoming a priority for brands

Agentic commerce represents a fundamental shift in how shopping happens. Instead of browsing pages or filtering product grids, shoppers increasingly rely on AI agents and answer engines to guide decisions, surface products, and complete purchases.

At NRF, we shared why this shift is happening faster than any previous commerce transformation. AI adoption has reached scale in months, not years, and trusted payments, identity, and UX are already in place through the wallets and platforms shoppers use every day.

For brands, this creates a new imperative. Discovery is moving beyond traditional search engines and marketplaces into conversational, AI-driven experiences. To compete, brands need structured, enriched product data and commerce systems that can power these new channels.

Agentic checkout and conversational commerce

Our first session showcased what happens when discovery and checkout converge inside AI-driven experiences.

What we demonstrated

We walked through how shoppers can discover products and complete purchases directly within AI chat experiences, powered by agentic checkout. This approach reduces friction by allowing customers to move from intent to purchase without leaving the conversation, while still keeping merchants in control of fulfillment, payments, and post-purchase experiences.

We also highlighted how agentic checkout integrates with existing commerce systems, ensuring brands do not need to sacrifice operational control to participate in emerging channels.

Why it matters

As AI agents become a new front door for shopping, brands need a way to meet customers where they are without losing ownership of the customer relationship. Agentic checkout bridges that gap, enabling conversion inside AI-driven experiences while maintaining brand control and operational consistency.

Data enrichment and answer engine optimization in action

Our second session focused on how enriched product data fuels discoverability across AI-powered channels.

What we demonstrated

Using our data enrichment capabilities, we showed how brands can transform messy, incomplete catalog data into structured, high-quality content that AI systems can understand and trust. This includes optimized titles and descriptions, complete attributes, consistent taxonomy, and brand-aligned language across languages and regions

We also demonstrated how this enriched data supports answer engine optimization (AEO), helping products surface in AI-driven discovery experiences like conversational search and recommendation engines.

Why it matters

As shoppers turn to AI to ask questions and compare options, brands that lack structured, agent-ready data risk disappearing from the conversation entirely. Data enrichment is no longer just about feed quality. It is the foundation for visibility, relevance, and trust in agentic commerce environments.

What ecommerce leaders should take away from NRF

For ecommerce leaders, the path forward starts with three priorities:

• Investing in structured, enriched product data that supports AI-driven discovery.

• Preparing for answer engine optimization alongside traditional SEO.

• Enabling flexible checkout experiences that meet customers inside emerging channels.

Brands that take these steps now will be better positioned to compete as agentic commerce moves into the mainstream.

The final word

The next phase of ecommerce will be defined by AI-powered agents, conversational discovery, and seamless paths to purchase.

The demos we hosted at our booth showed that the technology to support this shift is already here. For brands willing to adapt, agentic commerce represents an opportunity to improve discoverability, increase conversion, and meet customers in entirely new ways.

The question is no longer if agentic commerce will reshape ecommerce, but how quickly brands will be ready for it.

To learn more, read our article, Agentic AI in Ecommerce: Driving Smarter Decisions and Seamless Experiences.