New Report: Retailers Are Not Using AI to Its Greatest Potential, Despite Recognizing Its Value

NEW YORK (September 19, 2023)—Future Commerce, the media company focused on helping retailers understand the intersection of commerce and culture, today launched their comprehensive report exploring how the ecommerce industry is utilizing AI—and identifying opportunities by which retailers can use AI more expansively and effectively. Created in conjunction with global open-source ecommerce platform Shopware and AI ecommerce experience platform Bloomreach and Stripe, “The State of GenAI x Commerce” report serves as a benchmark for attitudes and behaviors toward generative AI at this particular moment in time. 

"If the modern shopping journey is a puzzle, Generative AI is the missing piece that brings a full image to life,” said Phillip Jackson, CEO & Co-Founder of Future Commerce. “Commerce isn't just about buying and selling—it's a leading indicator of where culture is headed. This report serves as a wake-up call for the ecommerce world, providing clear facts about the 'why' behind the industry’s adoption of AI thus far, and proving that it's becoming central to the employee experience. Businesses need to embrace this change—not merely be a part of the evolving culture, but lead it.”

Polling 300 C-suite executives and decision makers in the U.S. ecommerce space, the report reveals that:

• The ecommerce industry is an early adopter of AI, with 91% of respondents using AI in some capacity for work. 

• Three-in-five respondents have experienced a “measurable” increase in productivity because they’ve proactively leveraged AI solutions.

• Nearly the same (65%) stated they plan to increase their budget around AI for 2024. 

• Four-in-five are pleased with the outputs AI is helping them deliver. 

However, findings also suggest that the majority of current use cases (61%) are centered around written content creation, such as drafting blog posts, iterating campaign taglines and even crafting internal memos. That might be shortsighted in the long run, the report suggests, as AI capabilities go far beyond copy and content.

“AI is a car with 20 gears, but our findings show that most ecommerce retailers are only using one gear—and ultimately selling themselves short,” said Stefan Hamann, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Shopware. “In other words, the industry is only tapping into a small fraction of AI’s potential by using it solely for copy generation.”

“Generative AI has unlocked limitless new possibilities for ecommerce. As significant as its productivity use cases may be, it’s time to think bigger—to get curious about what this means for the entire online shopping experience,” said Raj De Datta, CEO and co-founder, Bloomreach. “AI is already changing how customers shop. Retailers may face risks in embracing this technology, but they’ll face bigger risks if they don’t.”

The ecommerce space is rapidly growing and evolving with new advancements happening all the time. As AI continues to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind, this report serves as a current benchmark and a glimpse into what the future may look like for AI in ecommerce.

To access the full report, head to download page.