E-commerce

The real AI disruption in ecommerce is internal

Pranav Balakrishnan

April 10, 2026 | 6 Min Read

Free Read

April 10, 2026 | 6 Min Read

Agentic AI promises to boost topline by converting consumer intent into purchases faster. But the greater impact will be on costs, with retailers expected to see a 30–35% EBITDA lift by 2030, two-thirds of which will be driven by improved backend efficiencies.

There is now more clarity regarding AI’s impact on ecommerce and online shopping.

The early expectations were that AI agents would render marketplaces redundant. Why would marketplaces exist when AI agents can find products and buy them on behalf of the customer?

Marketplaces, meanwhile, have been implementing guardrails, blocking access in some cases and suing AI startups for covertly accessing customer accounts and disguising AI activity as human browsing.

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