Why AI is a Turning Point for Tech Generally and Ecommerce Specifically

But all of that potential hinges on something important: identity. In order for AI to curate a better shopper experience or buying process, you have to actually know who the shopper is. AI has limited benefits without that information—you can “generate” all you want, but the shopper is still the cornerstone of a transaction. You can’t “personalize” without a person.

I’m just coming off Shoptalk, where we connected with a host of retailers, brands, and media. This year, the talk was all generative AI—the latest technology to command our attention and the public conversation.These periods of intense focus on a single innovation or moment are par for the course in our industry. Before generative AI, it was web3, metaverse, crypto, and so on. I’ve been in this sector long enough to recall the intense panic over Y2K or the breathless hot takes on the Palm Pilot.For the teams working on these technologies-of-the-moment, the excitement is palpable. I’ve been a part of startups at the vanguard, and it’s thrilling to release something bold into the world and to see what happens as users take advantage of it.I admit, generative AI is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Across the landscape of ecommerce and the technologies that enabled it, no technology has ever been adopted by users more quickly. The pace of adoption of ChatGPT, for example, dwarfs that of PCs in the 1990s, the internet in the mid-90s, the first generation of ecommerce sites, mobile apps, social media, and cloud computing.Each of these reshaped our industry—and I believe generative AI will too. When I see the technology in action and play around with it, my mind immediately jumps to its potential for retailers. I see the applications and use cases in product discovery, personalization, cross-selling, improvements to the buying experience, order fulfillment, and customer support.Because Bolt has been in the business of cutting out friction from digital shopping, what excites me about generative AI is that it could be the ultimate friction-fighting tool: A technology that can smooth out the repetitive, complex, and laborious processes in commerce. This technology can simplify digital retail, and it can make the ecommerce experience accessible to anyone. Because generative AI can answer questions and solve problems, it can answer shopper questions and solve retailer problems.It opens up a whole new dimension that drives next level innovation.

That’s why, more than ever, I’ve been pushing our team to create the best solutions possible for retailers to seamlessly know their shoppers. Because if we can achieve that and unite it with AI, we can unlock magical shopping experiences.<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="100%" height="442" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fm5nyeiowcM?showinfo=0&amp;controls=0&amp;autoplay=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>Imagine going to a website for a retailer you love—and seeing all the clothing available, but set atop a digital rendering of you. Imagine having an AI manage the delivery process and the return process, without any muss or fuss. Imagine being able to do all of that, throughout the internet, and never having to enter in your credit card information ever again.This was all once thought impossible. Now it’s just around the corner.There are obvious hurdles. In its current versions, generative AI technologies remain centralized systems, run by individual companies to serve their users. Over time, like many centralized innovations, this technology could become decentralized. To some extent, that’s begun already, and it’s encouraging. Why? Because decentralized systems do two important things: 1) They allow innovation to come from anywhere, so that even the smallest players in an ecosystem can win; 2) It enables competition and raises the bar for privacy, security, user data, and financial information.At Bolt, that’s how we’ve always operated—with a deep desire to serve retailers of all size and scale and a commitment to protecting customer data as sacrosanct. My hope is that the AI innovations in retail embrace these two operating philosophies. In fact, I’d go one step further and say that retail brands must embrace them.Users may value ChatGPT for writing fast paragraphs—but it still feels different to hand some nameless, faceless AI software your credit card number. We might delight in a computer’s answer to “what are the best ideas for a five-year-old’s birthday party?”—but typing in your home address into the ether still makes you just a bit nervous.That said, I think there’s more upside than risk in AI and its applications in ecommerce. So much of what we’ve tried to do at Bolt is eliminate the friction in commerce—and I look forward to accelerating that process using these newest innovations.