Key takeaways:
AI is rewriting digital commerce — but remains unpredictable
Has AI already become mainstream in consumer journeys? The answer is a resounding yes:
84% of European consumers report using AI tools in their everyday lives, with 63% using it for comparing options like brands, models, prices and reviews.
77% of US adults intentionally use at least one AI-enabled tool, from ChatGPT to Gemini and Copilot, and about 50% use it as a go-to shopping sidekick.
81% of APAC consumers demand AI-powered shopping tools, as AI becomes core to retail expectations.
Enterprises got the memo — and many have already started leveraging AI, so much so that Gartner predicts that 60% of brands will use agentic commerce for autonomous customer interactions by 2028.
However, the flurry of new protocols (ACP, UCP, MCP, you name it), OpenAI’s recent setback with Instant Checkout, and the rapid pace of market development create significant uncertainty. So, while retail leaders know there’s an immense opportunity in agentic commerce, they’re often at a loss for how to start — and how to manage this unpredictability.
For retailers attempting a DIY approach, the challenge is even greater. Building and maintaining integrations for each AI channel can delay market entry and increase risk. A single-channel bet may backfire if that channel slows down or consumer preferences shift — wasting time, money and effort.
This is exactly why commercetools built the AI Hub: A solution that manages volatility, simplifies experimentation and enables brands to tap into agentic commerce efficiently and safely.
An overview of commercetools AI Hub
commercetools AI Hub acts as a universal orchestration layer, translating your brand’s commerce logic seamlessly across AI channels like Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT. This allows brands and retailers to become both discoverable and shoppable wherever customers engage, adapt quickly to an evolving market landscape, and ultimately turn AI-driven conversations into measurable revenue.
As AI-driven shopping evolves beyond simple product discovery, it becomes essential for brands and retailers to maintain accurate, machine-readable product catalogs, pricing and inventory across all AI channels. This foundation enables truly end-to-end AI shopping experiences — from dynamic bundling and personalized offers to seamless orchestration of checkout, pricing, inventory and orders — all natively within the AI interface.
Moreover, businesses can activate the AI channels that make the most sense for them using AI Hub’s pre-built, easily configurable modules. This approach provides maximum flexibility, enabling brands to experiment, adapt quickly and accelerate time-to-market.
At its core, AI Hub translates your products within a commercetools project into formats that are immediately compatible with any AI channel. Key benefits include:
Infrastructure-agnostic integration: Adopt emerging AI channels without rebuilding your core systems. Seamlessly adapt as new channels gain traction, with integrations that streamline operations.
Protocol flexibility: Whether the industry standardizes on Google’s UCP, OpenAI’s ACP or entirely new protocols emerge, your commerce logic remains consistent, secure and scalable. Activate or deactivate channels as customer preferences or strategic priorities shift.
Compliance made simple: Each agentic standard comes with its own requirements. AI Hub removes this complexity, ensuring your brand remains compliant across all channels.
Reduced maintenance: By handling evolving protocols centrally, AI Hub eliminates the burden of managing shifting standards in-house.
Additionally, the commercetools team works closely with major AI providers at both the product and strategy level, ensuring that AI Hub stays aligned with the latest developments and future roadmap of each platform.
Choosing AI channels
In the early stages of the AI ecosystem, it’s important not to focus exclusively on a single channel. The landscape is evolving rapidly, and flexibility is your strongest advantage.
Let real-world data guide your decisions: Track traffic, user behavior and performance metrics to understand customer preferences. At the same time, keep in mind that major AI providers are still experimenting, and standards and protocols are far from settled.
AI Hub enables brands to experiment quickly, adapt to change and pivot across different AI channels without friction. For instance, some companies started with ChatGPT as their primary channel and later expanded to Gemini as new capabilities emerged. Others leverage Microsoft Copilot for initial marketing moments, while continuing to rely on ChatGPT for discovery and revenue generation.
The key takeaway: Stay flexible, follow the data and design for a multi-channel AI future.
DIY approach vs. AI Hub
Some companies consider integrating AI channels directly, but a DIY approach requires building custom commerce endpoints for each platform and channel — a costly and time-consuming approach.
AI Hub mitigates these risks by enabling multi-channel activation through a single, unified integration that orchestrates agentic commerce across all channels securely, consistently and effortlessly.
| Direct LLM integration | AI Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Integration model | Build separately for each LLM. | Integrate once, activate across channels. |
| Engineering effort | Ongoing custom builds per platform. | One integration layer, reusable everywhere. |
| Protocol changes | Rebuild when APIs or standards evolve. | Abstracted through a commerce-ready layer. |
| Commerce logic | Must recreate pricing, promotions and cart logic for each surface. | Uses your existing commerce engine. |
| Checkout orchestration | Custom implementation per LLM. | Standardized, secure execution via commerce protocols. |
| Governance and security | Fragmented across integrations. | Centralized control and monitoring. |
| Reporting and security | Limited cross-channel view. | Cohesive view of AI-driven orders within the Merchant Center. |
| Reporting and visibility | Linear effort with each new AI channel. | Scales once across all current and future channels. |
| Risk profile | High maintenance, high drift risk. | Controlled, enterprise-grade activation. |
Leading brands taking the charge in AI shopping
Retailers like Frasers Group, JD Sports, Liverpool and John Lewis Partners are already leveraging AI Hub to accelerate their agentic commerce adoption:
Retailers like Frasers Group, JD Sports, Liverpool and John Lewis Partners are already leveraging AI Hub to accelerate their agentic commerce adoption:
A global leader in sports fashion retail, JD Sports is actively preparing for AI-powered shopping by enabling customers to search for and purchase footwear, apparel and accessories directly through AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
JD’s omnichannel strategy combines immersive, theatrical stores with cutting-edge digital platforms, including a re-platformed eCommerce system via commercetools. Integrating AI with Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS) further enhances the customer journey by providing real-time stock updates, personalized recommendations, and secure, frictionless checkout.
We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to shop with us, no matter where they are or how they like to shop. As AI-driven interfaces become a real entry point for commerce, our partnership with commercetools and Stripe allows us to not only be discoverable – but also to be transactional – through those channels, without adding complexity to our operations. That strengthens our digital proposition for customers, and keeps us moving in line with the fast-changing retail landscape.
Group CEO, JD Sports Fashion plc.
Frasers Group will become one of the first European retailers to enable shoppers to discover and purchase products across its retail ecosystem (Sports Direct, FLANNELS and FRASERS) within AI shopping channels.
With this partnership, Frasers Group is now at the forefront of this evolution to deliver enhanced customer experiences across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity – including native checkout in ChatGPT – across Sports Direct, FLANNELS and FRASERS. This marks a shift in our digital capabilities, delivering an even more intuitive and personalised shopping experience for our consumers.
Chief Customer Officer, Frasers Group
Mexico’s largest department store, Liverpool, will be able to safely test, measure and scale AI-enabled journeys across its digital channels and store network without changing its core commerce stack — all enabled by commercetools.
We’re focused on meeting customers where they are and creating seamless journeys, not fragmented experiences. commercetools’ complete agentic commerce offering allows us to integrate directly with large language models like ChatGPT, giving us a practical way to experiment with these experiences, measure what works for our customers, and scale quickly, all with governance and security at the core.
Chief Digital Officer, Liverpool
With the ambition to be one of the first UK retailers to fully adopt and integrate the technology, John Lewis will enable shoppers to find inspiration on AI platforms such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT, and to transact and purchase items via these apps within a few clicks. The capabilities are expected to be available in 2026.
Our customers are already using AI apps and discovery platforms to find products they love. These investments will mean that we are right there when customers are looking for ideas — and being able to quickly and easily buy in a few clicks is a game-changer.
Chief Digital and Omnichannel Officer, John Lewis
Final takeaway
AI-driven commerce is no longer the future — it’s here. The real challenge is navigating an unpredictable, fast-evolving ecosystem without overcommitting too soon.
commercetools AI Hub removes this complexity. By abstracting fragmentation, enabling multi-channel flexibility, and allowing experimentation without risk, it gives brands the tools to move quickly, follow the data, and turn AI-driven interactions into revenue. The result: a scalable, future-ready path into the next era of retail.
Dolapo is a Product Manager at commercetools focused on Agentic commerce. With over 9 years of experience across retail, FinTech, and eCommerce, he loves to tinker with product data and understand consumer psychology while at it. Away from work, he fancies a good game of tennis.
