Shopping Bots in The Ring — Your Checkout Just Got Flagged
PLUS: Personalization Power Play
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📅 November 5, 2025 | ⏱ 3-min read
🎯 The big picture
AI is quietly reshaping how customers discover, decide, and buy, and that changes the fundamentals of customer experience.
The shift isn’t about technology for its own sake. It’s about how businesses use AI to anticipate needs, remove friction, and personalize at scale. The leaders moving fastest aren’t experimenting. They’re operationalizing, embedding AI into every stage of the customer journey.
For CX professionals, this means rethinking what “experience” actually means. It’s no longer just service or support, it’s the entire value chain: from product design to post-purchase care.
Today’s stories show how AI is becoming a core business capability, not a bolt-on feature, and why every customer-facing brand needs a clear strategy for how it will use, govern, and measure it.
📊 Today’s lineup
• Big brand showdown: Amazon vs Perplexity AI
• Williams-Sonoma’s new “culinary companion.”
• Fashion’s fit-fail meets AI fix
• AI is shaping product innovation, not just saving costs.
• Retail reimagined: omni-channel goes AI-first.
1️⃣ Shopping bots in the ring: Amazon vs Perplexity
What’s happening:
• Perplexity got a legal threat from Amazon over its AI assistant making purchases through the Comet browser.
• Amazon says the agent “breaks platform rules.”
• Perplexity calls it bullying — and a battle over who controls the customer experience.
Why it matters:
If your customer’s bot can shop for them, you’re not just designing experiences for humans anymore — you’re designing for machines that represent them.
What’s next:
• Audit: can bots shop, recommend, or chat on your site?
• Expect stricter platform rules on AI agents.
• Start defining your brand’s stance on third-party assistants.
Go deeper: Reuters
2️⃣ Williams-Sonoma’s “culinary companion” — AI that feels like your brand
What’s happening:
• Williams-Sonoma is rolling out a “culinary companion” AI that helps with meal planning and product discovery.
• The goal: move beyond chatbots into meaningful, brand-flavored guidance.
• Their AI will handle 60% of support chats, freeing humans for higher-touch service.
Why it matters:
It’s a glimpse of where AI and brand meet — not generic automation, but AI that feels like your brand’s personality and expertise.
What’s next:
• Think: what unique skill could your AI assistant embody?
• Focus on blending utility (solve problems) with personality (reflect the brand).
Go deeper: Retail Dive
3️⃣ Fashion’s fit-fail meets its AI fix
What’s happening:
• Vogue reports brands are using AI to predict fit and reduce returns.
• Startups like Fit Collective analyze returns, fabric stretch, and sizing inconsistencies.
• Some brands already see double-digit drops in return rates.
Why it matters:
This is AI solving a real human pain point. When clothes fit right, customers trust the brand — and come back.
What’s next:
• If your product depends on fit or comfort, AI fit-prediction is your next CX upgrade.
• Show fit insights on product pages, not just post-purchase.
Go deeper: Vogue
4️⃣ AI in consumer goods: from cost-cutter to creator
What’s happening:
• BCG says 75% of product launches flop — but AI can flip that by simulating consumer demand before production.
• Salesforce finds 88% of consumer-goods leaders say AI agents will drive growth within 2 years.
Why it matters:
CX isn’t just service — it’s shaping what gets made. AI can bridge feedback loops so fast that the next product drop could literally come from your customer data.
What’s next:
• Partner with product teams early — feed CX insights into innovation pipelines.
• Build AI loops that predict satisfaction, not just complaints.
Go deeper: BCG
5️⃣ Retail in the AI era: omni-channel just evolved
What’s happening:
• Fortune says AI is merging in-store, online, and at-home experiences into one seamless loop.
• 97% of businesses plan to use AI for customer communication in 2025.
Why it matters:
The “channel” mindset is over. Customers just want one continuous experience — and AI’s the glue.
What’s next:
• Map your journey end-to-end: search → chat → checkout → delivery → loyalty.
• Use AI to identify and fix friction before it costs you trust.
Go deeper: Fortune
⚡ Quick hits
• Slack (via Salesforce) drops a new AI assistant for customer-service chats → faster replies, lower costs.
• Nike pilots AI-powered in-store personalization → digital display walls adapt to who’s browsing.
• Apple tests AR shopping at flagship stores → customers use vision-based AI for try-before-you-buy.
💡 CX Prompt Tip of the Day
“Personalization Power Play”
You are an AI personalization strategist for a retail or service brand.
You have access to:
1️⃣ Customer purchase history
2️⃣ Browsing behavior (categories, dwell time, clicks)
3️⃣ Support or chat interaction logs
4️⃣ Customer lifetime value (CLV) segments
Your task:
• Identify 3 high-intent micro-segments showing strong buying signals (e.g., “repeat category visitors” or “recent cart abandoners”).
• For each, suggest:
- A personalized product or content recommendation
- A channel strategy (email, SMS, in-app, or AI assistant)
- A one-sentence message using the brand’s tone of voice
- A metric to track uplift (CTR, conversion, or satisfaction)
Output in a short, clear table.
Quick win:
Run this prompt weekly to generate dynamic personalization ideas that tie directly to behavior, not demographics. It turns your AI from a recommendation engine into a relationship builder, helping your team design experiences that feel thoughtful, not pushy.
🤔 CX reflection
Question of the day:
If your customers let an AI assistant handle their next purchase, would the experience still feel like your brand — or would your brand vanish behind the bot?
See you tomorrow —
DCX AI Today, your concise strategy touchpoint to stay ahead of how AI is reshaping customer experience.
Mark