Prepping for the AI revolution: A visual guide to why leading enterprises are moving away from legacy platforms

eCommerce has never been more critical to revenue — and yet most platforms powering eCommerce remain fundamentally unprepared for the AI revolution that’s currently underway. These insights and many others are part of The State of eCommerce: Replatforming and Migration Trends for 2025, a report by commercetools and Cascade Insights, which captures the pulse on drivers, trends and concerns surrounding commerce replatforming in the age of AI. 

The research interviewed business and technology leaders based in the US and the UK across manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, retail, consumer packaged goods and wholesale enterprises. Respondents were split between two segments:

1. Recent migrators who had switched to a new eCommerce platform within the past 12 months. 
2. Potential migrators who are considering switching to a new eCommerce platform within the next 12 months.   

As a starting point, the report shows that organizations face a narrow window to build AI-ready infrastructure. 97% of eCommerce platform decision-makers agree that AI will play a significant role in shaping the future of digital commerce and 93% of respondents anticipate a future where AI agents will predict customer needs and suggest products before customers realize they want them. 

The future looks bright for enterprises as AI-powered commerce comes into effect — but only for those with the necessary infrastructure to support it. As 88% of potential migrators recognize that they need to switch platforms within the next year, it’s clear that the first step to capitalize on AI is to replatform to a modern commerce platform that includes:

• Unified commerce data access: AI systems can only be as intelligent as the data they have access to. Legacy platforms often trap commerce data in silos — product catalogs, inventory, customer history and order data live in disconnected systems. For AI agents to thrive, they require real-time access to a comprehensive commerce context to deliver relevant and personalized experiences. 
• Composable infrastructure: As AI capabilities evolve rapidly, enterprises need platforms that can integrate with emerging AI ecosystems and protocols without vendor lock-in. The ability to adopt new AI models, agents and services as they mature — while maintaining security and governance — requires an architecture built for composability and standards-based integration.
• Persistent, contextual customer experiences: Generic chatbots and session-based AI interactions aren’t enough. The future belongs to branded AI companions that maintain context across channels, remember customer preferences, and deliver continuity whether a shopper moves from mobile to web to messaging platforms. This requires AI that’s easily integrated into commerce operations, not bolted on as an afterthought.

The good news? Organizations that recently switched to a new eCommerce platform are nearly 7x more likely to be “very satisfied” compared to those considering a switch. Investing in future readiness, especially through a composable infrastructure, is the path for enterprises to plug new AI tools, APIs and agentic systems without having to replatform the entire commerce stack.

As 94% of respondents report that composable commerce will be even more relevant to their business model in the near future — in fact, 78% switch eCommerce platforms to accelerate innovation speed — the path to AI readiness begins with the right foundation. 

Here’s how leading enterprises see the AI future playing out — and the steps they’re taking — in this infographic showcasing the key findings from our report.

There are even more great stats in the report! Get all the results of our survey: The State of Commerce: Replatforming and Migration Trends for 2025.