AI is Finally Delivering in E-Commerce. But Not How You Think.

We’ve spent two years hearing about AI’s potential in e-commerce. Now it’s time to talk about what’s real.

For the past two years, I have deliberately avoided writing about AI in this column. It is not that I don’t believe in its potential, but because the hype surrounding it has been so overwhelming that it has been difficult to separate reality from speculation. AI, like many data-driven innovations, casts an outsized shadow of interest, but only now are we beginning to see some tangible and meaningful results—especially in e-commerce.