“Instead of you shopping for yourself, AI is now shopping for you,” she said, adding that this changes how brands need to think about content. “Are we going back to an SEO-like phase where we’re optimizing toward AI algorithms?”

Content, context, and personalization

That idea of rethinking content came up repeatedly. Rachel Whitt, senior manager of content and retail GenAI leader at Deloitte Digital, emphasized the importance of grounding AI recommendations in human motivators. 

“We can’t just group people by data,” she explained. “Content still has to feel emotionally resonant, showing we understand what the consumer values.”

Stephanie Mellman, principal at Medialink, agreed and raised a concern about what gets lost in the push for AI efficiency. “Impulse and spontaneity are part of the magic of shopping,” she shared. “If AI removes that, the experience could start to feel engineered.”

But Jeremy Coen, client partner at Kantar, offered a more optimistic view. “Once shoppers see that AI recommendations work for them, they’ll start to trust it more,” he explained. “That could lead to trying new things more often.”

The human layer isn’t going away