Introduction

The way people shop online has fundamentally changed and shoppers are at the center.

AI sparked the evolution of the traditional ecommerce customer journey from a page-based model to a conversation-led experience. Today’s shopper no longer browses dozens of product pages. Instead, they open a conversation, ask highly personal questions, and expect responses that meet them at that same level of personalization.

‍McKinsey reported that 71% of customers expect personalization and 76% get frustrated when they don’t find it.

In 2025, this became more relevant than ever as AI intervened at every step. AI agents, copilots, and virtual assistants primed shoppers to expect immediate support for customer service tickets and personalized shopping experiences. Instead of putting the onus on shoppers to search FAQs, navigate chatbot automation loops, or scour product collections, winning brands are leveraging conversational commerce. This is the process of using real-time, two-way conversations as your storefront through chat, AI agents, messaging apps, or voice assistants.

Conversational commerce has moved past experimentation and is becoming a core way customers shop. Top ecommerce brands are already seeing this change, with 84% of companies treating conversational commerce as a strategic pillar this year compared to last year. They are defining business objectives and key KPIs around it.

AI adoption is keeping pace with expectations

AI currently handles an average of 31% of customer interactions for ecommerce brands and is expected to reach nearly 50% within the next two years. This becomes even more pronounced among enterprise-sized brands that rely on AI to scale efficiently. Companies with $100M+ revenue expect AI to handle at least half (53%) of interactions within two years.

In 2025, ecommerce brands using Gorgias had over 350M conversations with their customers across channels—nearly 10M of those turned into a purchase.

AI Agent and its virtual shopping assistance capabilities served as the first line of defence in many of these interactions and improved its selling capabilities month over month. The compound quarterly growth rate of the number of AI-influenced orders from all Gorgias customers increased by 273% QoQ.

To succeed in 2026, the debate isn’t AI vs. human interactions, ecommerce brands need a balance of both. The winning combination is a hybrid one: AI as your first line of defence with human agents supporting during the moments that matter.

Gorgias's Research Methodology

We surveyed 400 ecommerce decision-makers across North America, the U.K., and Europe to understand how conversational commerce and AI are reshaping the ecommerce landscape.
The online survey included senior leaders across ecommerce, CX, customer support, and marketing, representing businesses from $100K to over $100M in annual online revenue across industries such as Fashion & Apparel, Consumer Electronics, Home & Beauty, Food & Beverage, Jewelry & Accessories, and Sporting Goods & Outdoors.

Survey findings are complemented by aggregated and anonymized internal Gorgias platform data from 16,000+ ecommerce brands.