How To Use Generative AI in Ecommerce — and Keep Your Cool

Disclaimer: None of this was written by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). (Shocking, right?)

With the rising (and well-justified) use of GenAI for product and brand content, ecommerce transactions, customer service interactions, security, and data management, it might very well become the norm to disclaim when artificial intelligence isn’t being used rather than the opposite. 

GenAI is artificial intelligence that can generate text, images, video, or other data — it’s powerful and handy — that is when you use it right. Here’s how to use generative AI in ecommerce as a tool and maintain what makes your brand unique.

Why Is Generative AI a Big Deal?

Generative AI is a big deal because it’s made itself so, and it’s not just a 2025 ecommerce trend that’ll be here one day and gone the next. Its technology is so powerful that it simply can’t be ignored. But this power didn’t manifest out of thin air. 

Though AI can teach itself, it didn’t create itself. And what’s more powerful than something that’s been created? Its creator. 

Humans created AI and must be in the loop to apply it most effectively. According to ecommerce experts, generative AI is best suited for:  

• Automating simple, high-volume tasks;
• Fixing data problems, not necessarily “hard” or creative ones;
• Improving personalization experiences; and
• Assisting with regulatory compliance.

Brands leading the pack are the ones using generative AI in ecommerce because, through these functions, it's saving them time and cutting costs. 

How Is Generative AI Used in Retail?

Generative AI is increasingly used in retail in both simpler and more innovative ways. It can improve product detail pages (PDPs), cater to customers, and overhaul inventory management.

Generative AI Powers and Perfects PDPs

Twenty-one percent of shoppers shop online daily, up 11% from 2024, according to Salsify’s “2025 Consumer Research” report. That’s a lot of potential eyes on your products and pages. And whether you have a catalog of 10 products or 10,000, and whether you push to just a few channels or too many to count, that’s a lot of room for error.

Consumers are easily turned off by incorrect or inconsistent product content, per Salsify consumer research: 

• 53% of shoppers have abandoned a sale due to incomplete or poorly written product titles or descriptions; and
• 54% of shoppers have abandoned a sale due to inconsistent product information across websites.

However, with generative AI in ecommerce, there’s a lot of room for wins. With appropriate coaching and parameters from your teams, AI can check these tens, hundreds, or thousands of characters, images, and data points for discrepancies. 

No tool is totally autonomous, but automation is abundant, as some tools can even ensure you automatically meet the ever-changing requirements of your retail partners. 

With the massive legwork accomplished with GenAI, such as Midjourney for creating images or AI writing assistants, your team has more time for creativity, brand curation, or tackling more complex issues. 

Generative AI Can Liaise With Customers

Shoppers are warming up to GenAI as a means of connecting with their favorite brands, even allowing them to make purchase recommendations — and listening. Seventeen percent of shoppers purchased a product because it was recommended by an AI shopping assistant or chatbot, per Salsify consumer research. 

Furthermore, 28% of shoppers find AI-powered shopping assistants or chatbots valuable, with a fairly even split among Gen Z (24%), millennials (32%), Gen X (31%), and baby boomers (28%) but a staggering difference between men (44%) and women (13%). 

This leaves an opportunity for brands to consider how their AI strategy caters to different demographics and, perhaps, an even bigger question for AI developers. 

Frequently checking and updating your internal data and protocol for chatbots, for example, can help alleviate any discrepancies. Also, ensuring your chatbot's dialogue maintains your brand voice makes for better customer nurturing.

AI Innovates Inventory Management

Inventory management tools equipped with AI can help you better track what’s in stock, what’s selling, and what you should potentially sell in the future through sentiment analysis from surveys, social media, or search data.

Stockouts turn consumers off, too. When it comes to PDP content, 84% of shoppers find pricing and availability “extremely” or “very” important when deciding to complete a purchase.

Keeping inventory data up-to-date with AI or leveraging it to suggest similar products — if items go out of stock — can alleviate headaches for your team and customers. AI may even be able to reduce returns by offering live advice (i.e., Amazon’s Rufus) for curious customers to make better purchase decisions the first time.

What Opportunities Does Generative AI Offer for Ecommerce?

Generative AI also does not strictly mean the generation of something new, CEO and founder of Sitation, Steve Engelbrecht shared in a webinar on creating a winning ecommerce strategy with AI: “A lot of this can be applying this technology to changing something, analyzing something, fixing something, taking the data that you have, and using this technology to make it better.”

So, naturally, there are still further opportunities that GenAI offers for ecommerce. 

Further Bridging the Gap Between Digital and Physical Shopping

There will always be (some) discrepancies between the experience of shopping online and shopping in a physical store. But shoppers crave crossover between the two, aka “phygital” shopping. 

They expect brands to show up consistently, no matter what channel they’re interacting on, but consumers are also increasingly enthusiastic about AI technology: 17% of shoppers purchased a product online after using a virtual try-on or placement preview tool — up 9% from 2024.

For now, these tools are a great way for consumers to view furniture in-room or try out the latest shade of L’Oréal lipstick, all from the comfort of home. But there’s still more room for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to grow in ecommerce. 

As you roll it out on your PDPs, consider how to help your consumers warm up to it by sharing content of your employees using it or user-generated content (UGC) from your tech-savvy fans.

Generative AI in Ecommerce: It’s Personal

Generative AI in ecommerce is already being used to personalize shopping experiences. Figuring out consumer likes and dislikes? Pattern recognition? Choosing tailored product recommendations? Knowing which samples to include in shipments to nurture existing customers? AI’s already got that on lock. 

But with conversational search, for example, Target’s taking it further, according to eMarketer. Imagine typing into a search bar, in your own words, the exact type of shampoo you were looking for: You’re not looking for a specific brand, but you do have your hair needs in mind. 

Target’s guided search will respond to conversational search queries, so consumers can shop online in their own words (and actually be understood). It’s like talking to a salesperson who’s immediately on the same wavelength as you. 

According to research by the Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company, 84% of organizations say hyper-personalized experiences across customer touch points are a priority for the next year, as about 80% of consumers wish AI would better understand what products they’re searching for. 

This is something to consider for your own product content: Do you have your content on your PDPs describing your brand and products as if you were talking to a friend? Or is the language more robotic? 

Generative AI Helps You Dream Up Product Development

Dreaming up the next in-demand product is becoming more of a reality with AI. Companies like The Coca-Cola Company, fashion brand FINESSE, and Estée Lauder have already been using generative AI in their product development.

McKinsey & Company considers GenAi to still be in its infancy, but “when used properly throughout the product development life cycle, we sometimes see a reduction upward of 70% in product development cycle times.”

Per the same article, generative AI can be applied to all stages of product development, including market and user research, concept development, concept refinement, and concept testing. This leaves brands tons of room to test and learn how AI can be applied to help them reach their goals.

Generative AI in Ecommerce: Life Is Better With Bots

Always learning: Humans and AI will always have this in common. Applying generative AI in ecommerce to your organization will likely require testing, checks and balances, resets, and candid conversations about what your brand wants to accomplish and how (all without losing what makes your brand unique). 

But there’s no doubt that it's best to involve the bots when it comes to boosting operational efficiency, improving data quality, and dreaming up the next in-demand product.