Who's Doing Your Shopping? The Rise of AI Agents

Agentic commerce is changing not only where consumers shop, but who may be doing the shopping for them. As AI agents take on more of the discovery, comparison, and purchasing process, brands and retailers need to rethink how products are found and understood by both people and machines.

In this episode, Liz Sertl chats with Kristen Rodgers, Director of Brand, Retail, Marketing and Advertising, and Sports Tech at Plug and Play. Kristen explains what agentic commerce means, how shopping has progressed from e-commerce to mobile commerce, social commerce, and now AI-assisted purchasing, and why consumers may be more willing to hand routine purchases over to an agent than emotional purchases that require more consideration. She also explains why brands need machine-readable product information as more consumers use tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini for product discovery.

The conversation also covers the shift from search engine optimization to generative engine optimization, or GEO, and how longer, more contextual AI prompts give brands new information about what consumers want. Kristen shares how AI storefronts could change product search on brand and retailer websites, why businesses still want to own the purchase and post-purchase experience, and how sports organizations are using technology to support the fan journey before, during, and after an event. She also discusses digital twins and synthetic data as tools for testing how audience segments may respond to marketing, product, and business decisions, along with the AI tools she uses in her own work.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How agentic commerce shifts shopping from consumers searching for products themselves to AI agents helping discover, compare, and potentially purchase products on their behalf

• Why machine-readable product data and generative engine optimization are becoming more relevant as shoppers use AI tools for product discovery and recommendations

• How AI storefronts, digital twins, and synthetic data can help brands, retailers, and sports organizations better understand customer and fan needs and create more relevant experiences

Things to listen for:
(00:00) Introducing Next Level Supply Chain

(00:53) Kristen's background and her role at Plug and Play

(03:09) How sports tech connects player performance, fan experiences, and stadium technology

(04:12) How commerce moved from e-commerce to mobile, social, and agentic commerce

(05:45) What agentic commerce is and how AI agents can shop on a consumer's behalf

(07:29) The difference between functional and emotional purchases

(09:20) Why brands and retailers need machine-readable product information

(10:00) The shift from SEO to generative engine optimization

(11:58) How AI storefronts could change product search and discovery

(16:23) How sports organizations are thinking about the full fan journey

(18:52) How digital twins and synthetic data can support audience research and decision-making

(21:19) Consumer expectations around data and relevant experiences

(22:32) Kristen's favorite technology

(24:20) Why Kristen wants to learn more about vibe coding and building her own AI agent

Connect with GS1 US:
Our website - www.gs1us.org
GS1 US on LinkedIn

Connect with the guest:
Kristen Rodgers on LinkedIn
Visit Plug and Play at https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/