Reinventing Product Discovery: How AI Is Transforming the Customer Engagement
At Shopping Today 2025 in Utrecht, Insider joined leading retail and eCommerce innovators to discuss one of the most pressing challenges in digital commerce today: how to reinvent product discovery through AI-driven experiences. As choice grows exponentially online, helping customers find the right product — quickly and effortlessly — has become a strategic differentiator.
Updated on 13 Oct 2025
Today’s consumers face an overwhelming abundance of options. Too many products, too many categories, too many colors. What should be a seamless experience often turns into frustration — half of shoppers feel overwhelmed by choice, and nearly 80% spend more than half of their shopping journey just searching before they buy. In this landscape, product discovery isn’t just a feature anymore — it’s a growth driver that turns browsing into conversion and loyalty.
The power of smart recommendations
At the heart of this shift lies AI-powered product recommendations. Instead of showing everyone the same best sellers, modern algorithms analyze browsing behavior, affinities, and real-time actions to create personalized suggestions for every visitor.
In beauty, for instance, a foundation purchase might trigger a suggestion for a complementary lipstick. In fashion, a top could be paired with matching trousers and accessories to complete the look. The goal: simplify decision-making, enhance relevance, and increase average order value.
Smarter search: never lose a customer again
On-site search is a critical moment in the shopping journey. While most visitors use the search bar, few actually find what they’re looking for — and more than half abandon their carts after an unsatisfying search experience.
AI transforms this process by providing predictive keyword suggestions, intelligent auto-completion, and ranked results based on availability, popularity, or margins. This optimizes both user experience and ROI, ensuring that qualified visitors convert instead of drop off.
Omnichannel consistency across every touchpoint
Customers now engage across a multitude of channels — web, app, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and beyond. Ensuring a consistent, personalized experience across all these touchpoints is key to building trust and engagement.
The recommendations a user sees on your website can continue in transactional emails, while personalized product suggestions can follow up via SMS or WhatsApp. Every interaction feeds back into your customer data, continuously improving relevance and conversion rates.
The next frontier: conversational AI for product discovery
The future of product discovery lies in AI conversational agents. When customers aren’t sure what they’re looking for, AI-powered assistants can ask the right questions, recommend tailored products, and guide them through the purchase journey — just like an in-store expert.
Whether it’s helping a shopper pick the right lipstick shade or build an outfit for a specific occasion, conversational AI shortens the path to purchase, drives higher-value transactions, and delivers a premium, personalized experience.
Empowering marketers with flexibility and autonomy
Beyond the technology itself, success depends on empowering marketing teams. With the right platform, marketers can easily build and deploy recommendation strategies, adapt experiences for different audiences or geographies, and test and optimize in real time. This agility allows brands to stay relevant, anticipate needs, and maximize performance across acquisition, conversion, and retention.
Beyond transactions: creating intelligent customer experiences
Product discovery has evolved far beyond product display. It’s now about creating intelligent, two-way engagement between the brand and the customer — every interaction becomes a chance to inspire, convert, and retain.
Delivering the right product to the right person, at the right time, and through the right channel is no longer an aspiration — it’s the new standard for brands embracing AI-driven, omnichannel experiences.





