A New Era in Customer Experience: Shopping Is No Longer a Passive Act
Having to give the same information over and over while switching between channels such as a website, a mobile app and a call center... It's one of the frustrations we so often cause customers, isn't it?
But that is about to end, thanks to a fundamental shift led by AI. This new approach is ushering in a new era known as “agentic commerce,” one that is bringing the retail industry to the threshold of its most significant transformation yet. Going far beyond simple digital interactions and passive tools, this era is defined by AI agents autonomously carrying out complex, multi-step actions on customers’ behalf. The goal of this fundamental transformation is not only to increase efficiency but also to find the right customers and make the buying process as easy as possible for them. (So it’s emotional in every sense :))
The Force Behind This Transformation: Google’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience
To unlock the potential of this new era, Google Cloud announced its new platform, “Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience,” on January 11, 2026. The solution is designed to bring shopping and customer service together in a single intelligent interface. Most importantly, the platform is capable of managing the entire customer lifecycle, from initial product discovery to autonomous post-purchase problem resolution. Powered by Google’s most advanced Gemini models, it offers new prebuilt, configurable agents that businesses can deploy in days instead of spending months on development. The platform’s core goal is to reshape customer experience by turning passive browsing into action.
YouTube: The Future of Retail: AI Customer Experience Agents
Beyond Ordinary Chatbots: What Can the New Generation of Agents Do?
The new generation of AI agents has capabilities far beyond those of ordinary chatbots: the new “Shopping agent” feature processes text, voice and images and acts as a proactive digital concierge. Google’s example vividly shows just how revolutionary this technology could be: customers can now take a photo of a handwritten recipe and share it with the agent. The agent reads the handwriting, works out which ingredients are needed and, applying member discounts, adds all the items directly to the shopping cart. Supermarket chain Kroger, along with Lowe’s and Woolworths, is among the companies that have announced they will use these capabilities.
The technology also adapts to the specific needs of different industries. Papa Johns, the world’s third-largest pizza delivery company, uses its enhanced “Food Ordering agent” to take natural-language orders through mobile apps, kiosks and even in-car systems. The agent offers smart upsell suggestions while synchronizing menus across all platforms in real time. In beauty, The Estée Lauder Companies and Jo Malone London developed the “AI Scent Advisor” in December 2025, a tool that uses Google Cloud’s AI to bring the brand’s signature in-store consultation service into the digital world. The tool lets customers describe scents in their own words, matches their personal preferences with the brand’s complex fragrance data and offers tailored recommendations that guide them from curiosity to a confident purchase.
The transformative power of AI is not limited to online experiences; it is also reshaping physical stores. The Home Depot’s agent, “Magic Apron,” offers customers project-planning support via chat or voice commands, while providing precise aisle-level navigation and product information in the store.
A Future That Redefines Customer Loyalty
Agentic commerce represents a fundamental mindset shift in customer experience. The era in which customers passively search for information is coming to an end; instead, we are stepping into a future in which AI agents act proactively and autonomously on their behalf. With this technology, Google Cloud gives retailers the “superpower” to turn fragmented digital and in-store interactions into a single, effortless experience. As this transformation unfolds, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty will take on a new dimension; loyalty, it seems, will come to depend on a seamless, trust-based relationship with these intelligent agents that proactively understand customers’ intent and act on their behalf.
This piece was first published in Turkish in CX Bulletin on January 14, 2026. English translation.