The rise of conversational and agentic commerce forces a fundamental re-examination of eCommerce UX conventions. Historically, online shopping has followed a fairly linear path: customers search or navigate to a Product Listing Page (PLP), browse options, click to a Product Detail Page (PDP) for specifics, add to a cart, and eventually proceed to a separate checkout page.

But do we really need PLPs, PDPs, and even carts in their current form when AI agents can curate and present products dynamically? Increasingly, the answer appears to be no.

AI-driven interfaces are starting to merge discovery, decision, and purchase into a single continuous experience, often within a chat or a dynamically generated page.

Fluid Shopping With Conversational Agents

Thought leaders and leading businesses such as Salesforce have painted a picture of what the near future could look like. Instead of a static search results grid, imagine a shopping interface that builds itself in real-time as you converse with an agent.

For example, you might say to an AI assistant on a fashion retailer’s site: “I need a formal-ish suit for an evening event, something stylish but not too flashy.” In response, the agent could instantly populate the screen with a few suit options that fit the description, perhaps even personalised to your fit and past style preferences.

Those initial picks might sit on the side of the interface (almost like a tentative cart or a pinboard). You could then say, “Great, now I need shoes to go with that”, and the AI would expand the view to show dress shoes that pair well with the chosen suit. If you want to see more details on a particular shoe, you might tap or ask, and the agent would reveal the relevant information (materials, reviews, stock availability) in-line, without taking you to a separate “page”.

This fluid experience is more analogous to how an expert sales assistant would help in a physical store: grabbing a few items for you, discussing options, recommending add-ons, and handling the checkout when you’re ready – all in one continuous interaction.

Breaking the One-Fit-For-All Architecture

This conversational journey collapses the rigid sequence of the traditional funnel and suggests that many of the conceptual boundaries in e-commerce UX can be erased. In the above suit-and-shoes example, there was no dedicated “category page” or isolated product page; the content and options were presented as needed. Likewise, the notion of a persistent “basket” page might change. The cart could simply be the set of items the agent has pinned during the conversation, visible alongside the recommendations. When the user is ready, the agent already knows what’s in the cart and can move to checkout within the same flow.

Content and Context Become Crucial for Product Discovery

This is the “merger of search and checkout” Jade Beard-Stevens spoke of, where “AI becomes the new storefront.” The storefront is no longer a static homepage or product grid – it’s wherever the conversation with the AI happens, be that in a chat app, smart glasses, or a voice interface.

Crucially, this shift also changes how products are discovered. As Dennis Yao Yu noted when discussing ChatGPT’s shopping potential, “Customers might discover and purchase a product without ever visiting your site. Commerce is moving inside conversations. Context beats clicks.”. In a conversational paradigm, the context – gleaned from the user’s words, tone, and history – is king.

The AI surfaces products that fit the context of the request (and the user’s personal context), which may be far more precise than any manual filter the user could set. And when the user is ready to buy, it’s one uninterrupted flow, not a jump between pages.

Removing the friction of page loads and form fills can significantly boost conversion rates. Every extra click or redirect is a chance for the customer to drop off; a conversational journey has the potential to keep the customer engaged straight through to purchase.

Merging Traditional UX With AI-Driven Shopping

That said, rethinking the UX doesn’t mean eliminating all traditional elements overnight. Visual browsing and rich content will still play a role, but they may be served in new ways.

Shoppers will likely always want to see images or videos of products – the AI agents will accommodate that by showing media in the chat or immersive views on voice command. Inspiration and trends are also parts of discovery; those might come via AI-curated look books or by the agent incorporating social media (“The agent might say: I found an outfit trending on TikTok that matches what you described, want to see it?”). In other words, the AI can pull in content from influencers or brand campaigns into the conversation, merging human-driven inspiration with AI personalisation.

Optimising Your Site for AI-Driven Discovery

“Brands will need to optimize for AI-first visibility, not just SEO,” as Jade Beard-Stevens warns. This could mean structuring product data and content so that AI agents can easily ingest and interpret it (e.g. providing detailed product specs, schema tags, and high-quality images that the AI can display).

It may also mean ensuring your brand and products are “present” wherever these AI conversations happen – whether that’s integrating with third-party AI shopping platforms or developing your own AI assistant that can interface with others.

Forward-looking digital strategy teams are already thinking about questions like: How does our product catalogue appear to an AI that’s scraping the web for answers? Do we have an API or feed that the AI can use? If an AI is asked about “the best backpack for travel,” will our brand’s product be recognized as a top answer?

These considerations will shape content strategy, partnerships, and possibly advertising in the AI era (though notably, OpenAI has stated current ChatGPT product results are not ads or sponsored, the monetization of these channels is likely in the future).

The UX revolution driven by AI will reward businesses that can seamlessly plug into conversational platforms and provide the right data for AIs to do the selling.

Helping you Build the Future of E-commerce

Suraj Gurung, CTO at The Commerce Team Global, observes that ''this shift represents more than just new user interfaces - it’s a fundamental change in how products are discovered, evaluated, and bought.''

Success in this new paradigm depends on the ability to provide structured, high-quality data, flexible integration points, and dynamic, personalised content that resonates within AI-first environments.

At The Commerce Team Global, we specialise in guiding retail brands through this kind of transformation. Our end-to-end commerce expertise – from platform architecture and bespoke solutions to AI innovation and continuous optimisation – ensures our partners are prepared for the shift to conversational commerce and positioned to lead it. Whether you’re a retailer or partner we would be happy to hear your views.

Get in touch with us: info@thecommerceteam.com