Let's talk about AI..

I’ve been resisting writing about AI.

As a top-down thinker, it’s hard to anchor yourself in First Principles when something new, moving at the speed of light into an unknown future.

AI is evolving faster than any of us can process. And truthfully, no one fully knows where it’s heading (not even Altman, Thiel, or Musk). Add to that the flood of overnight “AI experts” on LinkedIn, and it’s easy to feel both skeptical and hesitant to add to the noise.

But as we look toward 2026 and start planning, we can’t ignore how AI will fit into our businesses. It’s almost impossible to think about Amazon planning for 2026 without asking where AI sits in that picture.

The shocking nature of headlines

“SEO is dead.” “The internet is dead.” “Keywords are dead.”
Apparently, everyone’s profession- from graphic designers to customer service reps - is also dead.

I dislike these click-bait declarations on LinkedIn, but they’ve become so common you start to wonder if your healthy skepticism as a seasoned business professional is out of touch.

It reminds me of the long-running “malls are dead” narrative. And yet malls still exist, adapt, and even thrive in the right markets.

Anyone declaring that something is “dead” is usually more wrong than right, and should be ignored as noise.

It’s worth stating this clearly, if only to remove the panic and haste these narratives tend to create in decision-making.

Now that we got that out as a disclosure.

The Promise of Productivity

A lot of buzz around AI is about promise of productivity. Promise of scale.

A compression of time between point A and point B in business.

I recently heard someone predict that a one(!) person business worth a $1B (that’s a billion dollars) will happen in less than 3 years. That doesn’t sound impossible.

The backdrop, however, is sobering: Amazon just laid off 14,000 people. UPS, 48,000. Target, 1,800 corporate jobs. All three cited “AI-driven efficiency” as a reason, and all suggested it’s only the first wave.

While the human cost of these layoffs, and the broader question of how much sacrifice society is willing to make in the pursuit of efficiency, are more important questions, my focus here is on giving you, a business leader, practical insight on Ai today.

Here are some practical thoughts on how to bring AI into your business to gain speed and output. And uf you want to go deeper on the topic of AI in e-commerce, Jo Lambadjieva’s AI for Ecommerce newsletter is one I would recommend.

How to Use AI (Without reinventing you business)

Building on a case of productivity, the most practical way to use AI: is to help you do more/faster/cheaper of what already works.

1. Own internally - the brand layer.

Anything that reflects your brand’s voice or presence should stay close to home.

• Use AI for ideation, variation, and speed. But not for strategy or storytelling.

• Example: Let AI draft ten headline options, refine them to match your tone.

• Create a “brand prompt library”, give it target persona, your brand voice examples. It can ideate on that

• AI to create videos, images, content, according to your brand style, tone, and messaging

  
  Goal: faster production, curating is critical (bad AI content is very easy to spot)

2. Leverage through SaaS - the data and operations layer.

You don’t need to adopt AI internally. It’s already embedded in most Amazon and SasS tools in Amazon ecosystem

• Forecasting systems now predict demand with AI-driven models.

• Dynamic repricing with AI-fueled algorithm

• PPC tools with AI bids automation and campaigns optimization

• Even Amazon AI Seller Assistant promises soon will be able to monitor, and manage your catalog, operational, inventory, account health for your Amazon store (The Promise of AI VA)

  
  Goal: benefit from smarter insights and efficiency, no new learning curve required.

3. Blend both - the strategy layer.

This is where humans and AI meet.

• AI to research, produce repeatable functions, create dashboards

• But rely on your judgment to decide what to cut, double down on, or override.

Let AI handle the mechanical work, but but keep the meaning, voice, and judgment human.

It’s important we keep business business. The fundamentals of running a business haven’t changed, but tools and methods have. But, AI is the most paradigm-breaking shifting force in life and business since the internet.

The businesses that win are the ones that look at AI through the perspective of what needs to get done in their business. Rather than chasing AI as a miracle that will change their business.

Agentic commerce

Ford famously said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster  horses”. 

Agentic commerce feels that way - way to shop that customers didn’t ask for, yet it’s here.

What is agentic commerce?

It’s a model of e-commerce in which autonomous AI agents act on behalf of consumers or businesses - researching, comparing, selecting and even purchasing products and services within parameters set by the user.

Example: you go to ChatGPT, Gemini, or any LLM of your choice and type: ‘I need high protein, Keto snacks for a long hike. No nuts, I am allergic.’ Within seconds, you’ll get a handful of personalized suggestions , complete with links to where you can buy them.

You skip the old process of going to Amazon or Google, typing keywords, reading reviews, checking prices, and comparing options. The research is done and brought back to you- without leaving the chat screen.

OpenAI is actively moving from chat to commerce. It’s partnering with marketplaces (Etsy), and retail giants, like Walmart, with more partnerships coming weekly. All to allow users to discover products and even complete purchases directly through ChatGPT.

These early collaborations show how marketplaces are testing ways to let LLMs mediate discovery, recommendation, and purchase, while still keeping commercial control in-house.

Amazon initially took a different path, i.e building its own LLM ecosystem. Its in-house AI shopping assistant, Rufus, continues to expand, and the company has restricted external LLMs from crawling its marketplace. That meant your products couldn’t be discovered through LLMs like ChatGPT.

However, on the Q3 2025 earnings call (October 30), CEO Andy Jassy said they “expect over time to partner with third-party agents.”

Boom — that’s a reversal of the original stance, and great news for brands.

I asked ChatGPT how many of its prompts are shopping-related. The answer: about 2%.

So at the intent level - people asking about products, prices, and fit for needs - shopping is small, but already a visible use case inside ChatGPT.

OpenAI’s own data puts current U.S. e-commerce traffic from ChatGPT at just 0.01%. Tiny today. But as consumers adopt AI-driven product discovery, its significance for brands will grow fast.

I believe LLMs’ role in agentic commerce will center on discovery and product recommendations, while purchasing will remain with brands and marketplaces like Amazon.

Still, expect to see “ChatGPT traffic” and “LLM-driven attribution” enter marketing and budget decks in the near future.

A Promise of New Paradigm

While the fundamentals of business stay the same, AI introduces a new paradigm, especially for those not yet deeply entrenched.

If you’re an established $50M/yr manufacturer, integrating AI into existing systems is inherently harder. You’re anchored by channels, processes, and ways of operating that already work, which also means they resist change. Larger organizations need an internal champion- an intrapreneur - someone who can drive learning and experimentation, and bring AI innovation into the organization from within.

If you’re a newer or more nimble brand, especially DTC, the landscape looks different. You have no paradigms to try to break, but rather ride the one that’s being created ass we speak. You can embrace AI-native discovery from day one. Instead of sinking months into website builds or expensive SEO projects, you can focus directly on creating contextual, lifestyle-driven product content designed for AI surfaces like Gemini or ChatGPT, where more consumers increasingly will start their shopping journeys.

Saludos,

Irina

Strategic level guidance for CPG manufacturers on Amazon. Reach out for help.