Expert perspectives and thought leadership on the transformation of commerce Page 2.
Shoptalk Spring 2026 made one thing clear: agents, answer engines, and AI-ready product data are becoming real retail infrastructure, not conference theater.
Modern Retail analyzes why ChatGPT moved away from Instant Checkout, highlighting the adoption and trust barriers facing autonomous shopping experiences.
This legal analysis argues that AI shopping agents are beginning to participate directly in transactions, while existing commerce rules and platform enforcement remain unprepared.
An analysis of Walmart’s early ChatGPT shopping experiment and what its missteps reveal about the current limits and future direction of AI-led commerce.
AlixPartners examines how shopping agents could reshape digital shelf dynamics, product discovery, and retailer strategy as AI begins to influence purchase decisions.
The Information examines how OpenAI’s retreat from native ChatGPT shopping could ripple through retailers, payments partners, and enterprise commerce strategy.
FTI Consulting argues that AI-driven shopping loops are replacing linear funnels, pushing retailers to rethink discovery, evaluation, and conversion as agents take a larger role in purchase decisions.
WIRED examines why Walmart is moving away from OpenAI's Instant Checkout toward embedding Sparky inside ChatGPT and Gemini, with implications for basket-building and merchant control.
Forrester argues the market is shifting toward an OpenAI-Amazon axis after ChatGPT's Instant Checkout pullback and Amazon's push to bring more merchant feeds into its shopping experience.
Distribution Strategy Group outlines how Amazon, Google, Shopify, and payments providers are building AI buying infrastructure, and why product data, APIs, and fulfillment performance matter more as a
This analysis examines how Stripe's Shared Payment Tokens expansion with Affirm could extend BNPL into agent-initiated shopping and widen payment options for merchants in AI-driven commerce.
The Fashion Law examines how agentic commerce could become a significant share of online retail and why legal frameworks may not be ready for autonomous buying.
