Move Over, Chatbots: Agentic AI Is Here to Run Retail

Tech companies are rolling out artificial intelligence (AI)-powered retail solutions that mark a shift from the generative AI boom of recent years to the agentic AI era — where AI systems don’t just generate responses but actively perform complex tasks with minimal human intervention.

Google Cloud, Salesforce, Zebra Technologies and Talkdesk join the likes of Amazon and ServiceNow to provide a suite of AI tools to help retailers create better customer experiences, improve product search, enable better inventory management and provide enhanced product recommendations, among other automated tasks.

“I think in time, AI agents will impact certain job functions in retail, but most of these tasks are digital, as opposed to physical tasks. As such, many of these functions are still marketing- or commerce-based, and retailers will be looking to companies in adjacent industries to see how well AI agents from Salesforce, Microsoft, and others are delivering value to their customers,” said Keith Kirkpatrick, research director of enterprise applications at The Futurum Group, in an interview with PYMNTS.

“The biggest question is whether retailers are willing to invest in technology that is relatively new, and, in many ways, has yet to demonstrate ROI. Margins are thin, and I think there will need to be a fairly significant ROI examples that are directly relevant to retailers, in order to drive early adoption. I think pricing will be important, and AI agent pricing will need to be tied to specific metrics or outcomes,” he said.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud has unveiled its Agentspace platform, which combines AI agents, Gemini’s advanced reasoning capabilities and enterprise data to create more personalized and efficient shopping experiences. What sets Agentspace apart is its ability to handle multimodal interactions, processing text, images, video and audio to create more intuitive user experiences.

AI agents will not only recommend products but also curate products, handle returns and instantly answer queries from the customer, according to the company. Using Agentspace, store employees no longer need to navigate through multiple catalog pages to find product information. Instead, they can simply ask questions in natural language, such as “What are the latest features?” and receive quick answers.

Agentspace goes beyond simple task automation. The platform’s ability to surface relevant data across the entire retail environment means businesses can make more informed decisions faster. This capability is complemented by Google Cloud’s broader retail product portfolio, which includes integrated assistants like Gemini for Workspace and platforms like Vertex AI Agent Builder.

Google Cloud also said NotebookLM for enterprise — an AI tool that analyzes troves of data and explains the findings in the form of a two-person audio conversation — is now available to retailers as well. This tool gives retailers a faster way to absorb and analyze data to become more productive.

Google Cloud also launched Vertex AI Search for commerce, which the company said is meant to “dramatically” improve search, browsing and recommendations in eCommerce. The solution is meant to solve a common problem among shoppers searching for products in a digital storefront but not finding exactly what they have in mind.

Google Cloud amped it up with what it calls ‘conversational commerce,’ an AI that helps shoppers find what they’re looking for or helps a sales clerk answer customer questions by pulling data from multiple sources. Google Cloud pointed to early adopters such as Bed, Bath & Beyond that have already reported a 5% improvement in revenue per visitor using its conversational commerce capabilities.

Google Cloud also rolled out a generative AI catalog and content solution that can help retailers improve their product catalogs by using multimodal AI models Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash and Imagen 3 (image generation).

AI-Powered Tools

Meanwhile, Salesforce has released two new AI-powered tools for retailers: Agentforce for retail to make it easier for retailers to build AI agents and Retail Cloud with Modern POS to provide a cloud-based point-of-sale system. It will enable retailers to automate order management, guided shopping, appointment scheduling and the creation of loyalty promotions.

On Thursday (Jan. 9), Zebra Technologies introduced a new set of AI tools for customer-facing workers and plans to roll out AI agents in the second quarter. On the same day, Talkdesk introduced AI agents for retail that can perform tasks like customer identification and authentication, real-time order status, tracking and updates, shipping address modifications and connecting customers with in-store specialists.

Amazon has been developing AI agents for its eCommerce platform to help customers shop. These AI agents can recommend products, add items to carts and even complete shoppers’ purchases. Its Rufus AI assistant already helps shoppers on several tasks, including facilitating product returns and refunds without needing to talk to a human customer representative.

ServiceNow has partnered with Nvidia to develop AI agents on its platform. These AI agents are designed to automate various retail operations, including customer service, inventory management and sales processes. ServiceNow will use Nvidia’s NIM Agent Blueprints — basically AI agent templates — for enterprise customers to use out of the box.