Why Agentic AI Will Soon Be Retail And Ecommerce’s Secret Weapon

Today Forbes published an eye-opening article titled “Why Agentic AI Will Soon Make ChatGPT Look Like A Simple Calculator”. This piece dives into the start of Agentic AI - a technology poised to far surpass the functionalities of ChatGPT and other generative tools currently on the market. For the past few years, I’ve been deeply immersed in how AI is reshaping the retail landscape. However, over the last six months, I’ve focused exclusively on Agentic AI and its far-reaching implications for both retail and e-commerce. What I’ve uncovered aligns perfectly with the Forbes article’s core message: we’re on the cusp of a new era in AI—one that demands rapid adaptation from brands and retailers, or they risk being left behind.

Below, I’ve dissected the biggest insights from Forbes’ report and correlated them to what I see happening in retail and ecommerce. I hope these reflections spark excitement for the massive opportunities on the horizon.

1. From Reactive to Proactive Intelligence

Forbes’ Key Insight: Traditional generative AI systems, including ChatGPT, rely heavily on prompts to produce outputs. Agentic AI, on the other hand, promises a proactive capacity - it won’t just answer questions but will anticipate needs, understand context deeply, and initiate actions on its own.

Retail and E-Commerce Application

• Personalized Shopping Experiences: Imagine a system that doesn’t just recommend products but proactively creates unique offers for customers based on real-time changes in inventory and trending styles.
• Intelligent Product Curation: Agentic AI could run dynamic product displays on e-commerce sites, rearranging and spotlighting items that best match an individual shopper’s browsing patterns, purchase history, and external factors like the weather or seasonal preferences.

Pro Tip for Brands -

Start planning for integrated AI systems that can “act” rather than merely “react.” Invest in robust data pipelines and collaborative tools so your AI can seamlessly connect between marketing, logistics, and customer service.

2. Multimodal Context and Memory

Forbes’ Key Insight: A significant leap is Agentic AI’s ability to incorporate multiple data channels (text, voice, imagery, sensory data) and maintain a long-term memory of these inputs. This means it can learn from historical interactions in a profound way.

Retail and Ecommerce Application

• Omnichannel Customer Journeys: Today’s customers hop between online, in-app, and in-store experiences. An AI that remembers a shopper’s last in-store query about running shoes and cross-references it with their online product returns can tailor future communication with uncanny precision.
• Augmented Customer Support: Imagine a support chatbot that understands the emotional tone of a frustrated customer’s voice on a call, cross-references it with recent email exchanges, and offers a specialized resolution—no repeated explanations needed.

Pro Tip for Brands -

Centralize your customer data in real-time dashboards or data lakes. Agentic AI thrives on comprehensive data sets. When it can see the full 360° view of a shopper’s journey, it can optimize with remarkable accuracy.

3. Autonomy at Scale

Forbes’ Key Insight: Agentic AI won’t merely provide suggestions; it can autonomously complete end-to-end tasks, effectively acting as a sophisticated digital worker.

Retail and Ecommerce Application

• Autonomous Inventory Management: Gone are the days of manual inventory updates. Agentic AI can autonomously re-order stock, coordinate with suppliers, and even plan logistics to ensure minimal downtime in the supply chain.
• Personalized Marketing Campaigns: From concept to deployment, AI agents can brainstorm campaign ideas, draft copy, A/B test visuals, and automatically optimize ad spend for the highest ROI—without constant human intervention.

Pro Tip for Brands -

Look for high-impact but repetitive tasks that can be delegated to AI agents. Freeing human teams from manual oversight allows them to focus on creative, strategic initiatives, resulting in faster innovation.

4. Ethical and Compliance Considerations

Forbes’ Key Insight: As these AI systems become more autonomous, questions around ethical use, bias, and data compliance become more complex. Agentic AI requires structured oversight and well-defined ethical boundaries.

Retail and Ecommerce Application

• Transparent AI-Driven Recommendations: Customers should understand why a certain product is being recommended to them. Agentic AI might offer a quick, explainable breakdown of how it arrived at its suggestions.
• Bias Mitigation: Systems that actively learn can inadvertently reinforce biases. Brands must actively monitor and employ diverse data sets to reduce discriminatory patterns.

Pro Tip for Brands -

Set clear ethical guidelines and define “rules of engagement” for your AI systems. Work with cross-functional teams - legal, marketing, customer service—to ensure your deployment fosters trust and aligns with brand values.

5. The Future: Merging Digital and Physical Worlds

Forbes’ Key Insight: The biggest promise of Agentic AI is how it could seamlessly bridge digital and physical realities. Soon enough, autonomous agents might orchestrate everything from supply chain logistics to in-store robotics—making real-time adjustments based on subtle shifts in consumer behavior.

Retail and Ecommerce Application

• Physical Store Automation: AI-powered robots restocking shelves, self-checkout systems that adjust dynamic pricing on the fly, or an AI that reorganizes store layouts based on traffic patterns.
• Hyper-Personalized Omnichannel Experiences: In the near future, an agentic system might arrange same-day deliveries from local micro-fulfillment centers, weaving together online ordering with offline inventory so that items arrive hours after a shopper first sees them online.

Pro Tip for Brands -

Test small, pilot programs that integrate digital and physical store experiences. Whether it’s a “dark store” for online orders or using in-store cameras to predict foot traffic, real-time data feedback loops will be essential to leverage Agentic AI fully.

Wrapping Up

The Forbes article is a wake-up call: Agentic AI isn’t just an incremental improvement—it’s an entirely new paradigm. Over the last few months of my own research, I’ve seen how brands that lean into this technology stand to gain unprecedented advantages—from hyper-personalization to autonomous operations that drastically reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

The bottom line? Start now.

Agentic AI systems demand deliberate planning, ethical foresight, and a willingness to experiment. But for those ready to explore, the rewards are immense. By proactively embracing this new wave, retail and e-commerce leaders can create more intuitive, efficient, and profitable experiences - putting them leagues ahead in a rapidly evolving market.

If you’re curious about how Agentic AI can be integrated into your existing operations, let’s connect. I’d love to share more about what I’ve learned and brainstorm how your brand can position itself for this exciting future.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment, share your thoughts, or reach out directly if you’d like to dive deeper. The era of Agentic AI is at our doorstep, and I’m here to help you navigate it. If you want more tips follow Ricardo Gomez-Cendon for daily insights.