Issue 48    Tuesday, January 20, 2026

AI is the new aisle:
What brands need to do to
stay in the cart 

The adoption of generative AI is unlike any technological development we’ve seen: ChatGPT reached one million users in five days, a milestone that took Facebook ten months. Today, it has hit 800M weekly active users, a number that continues to rise. And increasingly, those users aren’t just asking questions, they’re shopping.

We’ve officially entered the era of agentic commerce. AI tools and chatbots are now acting as highly personalized agents that learn each consumer’s preferences, habits, and values so they can recommend, assemble, and even purchase products on the shopper’s behalf. New capabilities and integrations are making these flows more seamless and transactional, turning AI into a high‑intent “aisle” that sits between shoppers, retailers, and brands.

CHatGPT, Gemini, and retail AI are redefining the aisle

Over the past year, three shifts have accelerated this change.

ChatGPT becomes shoppable.

ChatGPT began as a research companion, but a series of partnerships has turned it into a commerce channel. Last year, it launched Instant Checkout with Etsy and Shopify, allowing shoppers to describe what they need, receive recommendations, and check out without leaving the interface. Since then, OpenAI has added partnerships with major US retailers like Walmart and Target, last‑mile platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart. Instacart, for example, lets a shopper go from “Plan tacos for four people this week” to a ready‑to‑review cart in seconds. If ChatGPT continues to capture a meaningful share of search and discovery traffic, our Retail Insights team expects it to become a top 10 eCommerce retailer by 2030.

Google builds out agentic commerce capabilities.

Google is focused on the infrastructure that lets AI agents move from recommendation to purchase. Tools like “Buy for me” showed how an AI could visit a merchant’s site, confirm price and availability, and securely purchase on a shopper’s behalf. At NRF, Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that lets AI agents handle discovery, checkout, and post‑purchase support across multiple retailers such as Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart. Walmart’s integration with Gemini brings this to life. Shoppers can ask for advice, like “I need a lightweight vacuum for pet hair” and then purchase Walmart and Sam’s Club products inside the conversation, often with delivery in under three hours.

Retailers build AI-native experiences of their own.

At the same time, retailers are building their own AI‑powered search tools and assistants to keep more of the journey in‑house. Amazon’s Rufus and Walmart’s Sparky blend search, reviews, and AI guidance in a single interface, and they’re beginning to integrate media. In November, Amazon launched Sponsored Products prompts and Sponsored Brands prompts, which surface ads within Amazon Rufus. And this month, Walmart announced it’s now running ads within Sparky in the Walmart app. Brands can now intentionally show up through Sponsored Prompts, with Sponsored Products appearing directly in the conversation at the moment of decision. As these retailer‑owned AI environments scale, sponsored formats and media activations inside LLM‑powered shopping flows will become a larger part of the retail media playbook.

If AI is the new aisle, your product needs to show up in the answer

All of these moves add up to a simple reality: more of the decisions that used to happen on search results pages and product grids are now happening inside AI conversations. For brands, the impact shows up in three connected shifts:

1. Where we shop: from retailer sites to AI agents

AI is transforming where consumers go to discover and purchase products. Instead of starting on a retailer’s website, more journeys will begin, and often end, with an AI agent like ChatGPT, Gemini, or a retailer-owned assistant. As a brand, you’ll need to rethink routes to market and platform priorities:

• Map the AI landscape for your category. Identify which AI platforms and retail AI tools matter most in your key markets.

• Audit how you show up. Regularly check how your brand and priority products are represented across major LLMs and AI agents.

• Partner with retailers on their AI strategy. Work closely with retail partners to understand how their AI assistants will surface your category and where you can influence inputs.

2. How we shop: from SEO to GEO

Instead of scrolling through long results pages, shoppers see a small set of AI‑curated options tailored to their context: budget, preferences, past purchases, and constraints. This pushes brands beyond traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into GEO (Generative Engine Optimization):

• Make products “agent-readable.” Ensure rich, structured product data and clean feeds so AI systems can easily understand and compare your SKUs.

• Write for humans, not crawlers. Use plain, conversational language while clearly highlighting differentiators, certifications, and third‑party validations.

• Level up reviews and ratings. Build ratings and reviews excellence, knowing that AI agents will lean heavily on credible social proof.

3. Shop for us: when agents make the decisions

AI is increasingly choosing products for shoppers. Agents will balance price, availability, convenience, brand preferences, and past behavior to assemble baskets autonomously–Amazon Rufus is already leaning in here. That raises the stakes for brands:

• Prioritize repeat‑purchase and replenishment SKUs. Focus on products that are most likely to be placed on “autopilot,” and ensure those SKUs are fully optimized to be selected and reselected by agents.

• Share data to improve recommendations. Explore ways to share insights with retailers and platforms to power more personalized, relevant agent recommendations where your brand is the right answer.

• Monitor the emerging agent economy. Stay close to new models like sponsored placements in AI answers, biddable “agent shelf” inventory, and referral or revenue‑share partnerships, so you know when and how to lean in.
  
  

The bottom line: If AI is the new aisle, your brand needs to design for AI‑first, answer‑ready discovery. That means clean, structured product data, live price and availability, and clear, consumer‑friendly content that makes it easy for agents to find, understand, and recommend your products in a zero‑click world.

Austin Seibert
Director, AI and Automation at Flywheel

Want to make sure your products show up in the AI aisle?

Featured PODCAST

How to turn Flywheel Retail Insights' digital trends into your 2026 action plan

Digital commerce is shifting fast, and ten big “trends to prepare for” can feel overwhelming. In this conversation, Emma and Hannah Donoghue (SVP, Commerce Intelligence at Flywheel) walk through Flywheel Retail Insights’ “Digital Trends to prepare for in 2026” report and translate it into concrete next steps. From agentic commerce and data clean rooms to value cycles, private label pressure, consolidation, and CTV, Hannah explains what changed, why it matters now, and how to build a focused 2026 plan instead of chasing every headline.

Additional Resources

2026 Commerce Trends: The era of agentic commerce

AI agents are rapidly replacing the search bar as the starting point for product discovery, and brands that don’t show up in AI‑generated answers will lose ground. In this video our team unpacks the rise of agentic commerce, from shoppable AI experiences to sponsored ads inside LLM‑powered flows.

Google launches UCP and integrates Gemini with Walmart for AI-powered shopping

Google is making Gemini shoppable, raising the stakes for how brands show up in AI‑driven commerce. In this video, Bernie Che breaks down Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Walmart’s Gemini integration, and what they signal about the collapsing gap between discovery and checkout.

Walmart launches ads in Sparky and opens up new beta to Marty

Is Walmart turning AI shopping assistants into the next big ad channel? In this Updates video, Katy Jordan breaks down how Walmart is embedding ads into Sparky, its AI shopping assistant, what their new advertiser tool Marty can do, and why 33% year-over-year growth signals a major shift in retail media.