Shopping in Transition: From Automation to Agentic Commerce
Digital commerce is at a turning point. While e-commerce has evolved in recent years primarily through automation, data analysis and target-group-specific marketing, the current surge in AI marks an entirely new phase in which the customer journey and the overall customer experience are being transformed in lasting ways. According to a representative Bitkom survey conducted in 2025, 61 per cent of retail companies believe that the use of artificial intelligence gives retailers a competitive advantage (↗ Bitkom). Whether in marketing, sales or customer service, intelligent systems are now doing more than simply handling repetitive tasks: they are thinking along with us, learning continuously and increasingly making autonomous decisions. This white paper provides an overview of the key AI trends in e-commerce and shows how retailers and brands can use this new generation of technology strategically to their advantage. It examines practical fields of application, from automated decision-making and personalised customer engagement to agentic shopping, and describes the innovative potential of concepts such as foundational customer models, AI benchmarking and the intelligent use of location data. Its aim is to highlight the wide range of opportunities that artificial intelligence now offers the retail sector: closer customer relationships, faster responses to market changes, deeper insights into consumer behaviour, and a retail landscape that is not only more digital, but also more intelligent, more dynamic and more individual than ever before.
