E-commerce is undergoing a strategic turning point. After years focused on digitizing catalogs and migrating traditional processes to web environments, electronic commerce is evolving toward a new phase driven by conversational models and Artificial Intelligence agents.
In this new episode of Digital Talks by t2ó ONE, Esther Checa speaks with Mónica San José—an executive with over 25 years of experience at retail giants such as Sephora, Roberto Verino, El Corte Inglés, and Levi’s. Mónica specializes in business transformation and applied AI, with a focus on the direct impact of agentic e-commerce on the relationship between brands, consumers, and platforms.
Traditionally, e-commerce operated on a navigation model: infinite catalogs where users filter, explore, and translate their own needs into the visual language of the website. In contrast, the arrival of AI agents has shifted the rules of the game toward an intention-based model. As Mónica San José points out, brands previously focused on digitizing a catalog, whereas now they are digitizing the role of the salesperson. This means interpreting buying needs in natural language and delivering precise recommendations in real time.
In a physical store, the sales process begins with an exploratory conversation. Conversational agents bring that exact dynamic to the digital sphere—eliminating friction, shortening the discovery process, and reducing cart abandonment caused by option overload.
In this episode, you will discover:
- How online shopping behaviors are evolving
- Why AI agents could transform the relationship between brands and consumers
- What happens when an agent searches and compares products on our behalf
- How brands can maintain their visibility in this new ecosystem
- Why product data quality is becoming increasingly critical
- How to measure the impact of AI agents in retail
One of the biggest shifts brought by the agentic paradigm is the evolution from personalization based on historical data to personalization based on present intent. While looking at the past can lead to errors if the user’s needs have changed, understanding current context enables more agile solutions and reduces a major pain point for brand profitability: product returns. Contextualized, accurate recommendations lead to better-informed purchasing decisions.
However, having agents act as shopping intermediaries means brands must now manage two customer profiles simultaneously: the end consumer and the agent representing them. To maintain visibility in this ecosystem—via Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—brands must move past generic descriptions like «premium fabric,» exhaustively structure product metadata, and strike a balance between technical data accuracy and brand storytelling.
Finally, evaluating the effectiveness of AI agents requires looking beyond immediate conversion metrics. Assessing criteria such as mission resolution rate, operational autonomy relative to human teams, and recommendation precision is essential to measuring real business value.
The shift toward agentic e-commerce is more than a simple technology upgrade; it demands a deep organizational shift and a reimagining of talent management across marketing, technology, and business teams.
🎧 Want to dive deeper into how to prepare your strategy for this transformation? Listen to the full episode of Digital Talks on your preferred podcast platform or watch it on our YouTube channel.
