In this episode of Retailgentic, Scot Wingo talks with Manil Uppal, Founder & CEO of CartAI, about building the “execution layer” of agentic commerce, where AI agents don’t just recommend products, they buy them. From his early startups acquired by H-E-B and UPS to his vision for CartAI, Manil shares how his team is solving the hardest problem in agentic shopping: completing checkout seamlessly across any retailer.

Key Timestamps

• 00:02:00 – Manil’s background: from delivery startups to AI infrastructure
• 00:09:00 – The “aha” moment: from “Where to Buy” to “Go Buy It”
• 00:15:00 – The 3 layers of Agentic Commerce: Catalog, Payments, Checkout
• 00:20:00 – How CartAI executes merchant-native checkouts across platforms
• 00:26:00 – Why retailers need a whitelist for good agents
• 00:33:00 – Handling out-of-stocks, variants, and dynamic pricing
• 00:40:00 – Thoughts on ChatGPT’s new ACP standard
• 00:43:00 – Lessons from early food delivery startups for agentic commerce
• 00:46:00 – The future: vertical AI apps, expert agents, and commerce everywhere

Agentic commerce is evolving fast and CartAI is building the rails to make it work.

👉 Connect with Manil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maniluppal/
👉 Learn more about CartAI: https://www.cartai.ai
👉 Explore their substack: https://substack.com/@cartai

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In this special Retailgentic episode, guest host Kiri Masters turns the tables on our regular host, Scot Wingo (CEO, ReFiBuy). They unpack the next big retail revolution, Agentic Commerce, and what it means for shoppers, retailers, and brands as AI shopping agents like ChatGPT and Perplexity redefine discovery, loyalty, and checkout.

Scot shares the lessons behind ChannelAdvisor, Spiffy, and now ReFiBuy, plus why messy product catalogs, ad overload, and loyalty programs will determine who wins in the AI marketplace era.

⏱️ Key Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Kiri turns the tables
02:15 – Scot’s early career & first startup
07:50 – Building ChannelAdvisor
14:30 – Lessons from going public
20:05 – Spiffy and the services economy
26:40 – Discovering AI → the spark for ReFiBuy
33:00 – What is Agentic Commerce?
38:20 – ChatGPT & Perplexity in the marketplace race
45:00 – The product catalog problem explained
51:00 – How ReFiBuy solves it with AI
55:20 – Retailers’ edge: loyalty, data, customer experience
59:00 – The next phase: marketplaces 2.0
1:02:00 – Close: The future of AI shopping

👉 Connect with Scot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescotwingo/
👉 Learn more about ReFiBuy: refibuy.ai

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In this episode of the Retailgentic Podcast, Scot Wingo sits down with Jason Nyus, General Manager of North America at Shopware, a leading open-source e-commerce platform. Jason brings over 25 years of experience (20+ at Digital River) to unpack where e-commerce is heading, why Shopware is betting big on agentic commerce, and how the Agentic Commerce Alliance could shape the industry’s future.

Timestamps:
02:00 – Jason’s 25-year journey in e-commerce, from Digital River to Shopware
06:00 – The early days of app stores: Nokia, Blackberry, Microsoft
09:45 – Why Digital River pivoted and what commoditization taught him
13:00 – Why Shopware sees opportunity in mid-market and complex use cases
20:30 – Shopware’s scale: $23B processing volume, top 6 global commerce platform
26:00 – Introducing the Agentic Commerce Alliance: vision, openness, and independence
36:00 – Use cases for agentic commerce: competitive pricing, loyalty, and customer service
42:00 – Risks and opportunities for Shopify, Google, and Amazon in the agentic era
46:00 – Jason’s predictions: a billion-dollar brand without a website, 25% of e-commerce becoming agentic by 2030
Jason makes it clear: the future of commerce won’t be decided by one platform. Shopware’s vision of an open, agent-friendly ecosystem is a bold alternative to a closed, platform-controlled future. The Agentic Commerce Alliance could become one of the most important initiatives shaping AI-driven retail.

👉 Connect with Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonnyhus/
👉 Learn more about Shopware’s vision: shopware.com
👉 Explore the Agentic Commerce Alliance: agentic-commerce.org

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On this special Retailgentic episode, we sit down with Jordi Montes, CEO & co-founder of SimpleCheckout.ai, who officially launched today. Jordi shares his journey from Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to building a unified checkout and payment framework for AI agents. We dive into why agentic payments matter, what SimpleCheckout solves, and how it could reshape the future of online retail.

Timestamps:

• 00:01:55 – Jordi’s background: from TravelPerk to Lightning Network
• 00:05:30 – The “sci-fi moment” that inspired SimpleCheckout
• 00:12:00 – Why payments must evolve beyond the browser
• 00:18:00 – Mapping agentic commerce to the travel industry model
• 00:23:00 – Competing visions: SimpleCheckout vs. PayOS vs. Nacuda
• 00:31:00 – The role of personalization in agentic commerce
• 00:39:45 – Why SimpleCheckout is payment- and merchant-agnostic
• 00:43:30 – Looking ahead: the future of agent-to-agent payments

SimpleCheckout’s launch marks a turning point in how AI agents will transact. As agentic commerce takes hold, Jordi’s vision of a universal, flexible checkout protocol could define the rails of the next decade.

Checkout their substack announcement: https://simplecheckout.substack.com/p/agentic-commerce-made-simple

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In this episode of the Retailgentic Podcast, Scot Wingo sits down with Melissa Minkow, Global Director of Retail Strategies & Insights at CI&T. Melissa shares her perspective on consumer behavior, why ingrained shopping habits stick, and how agentic commerce will shape the future of retail.

We cover:
- Why consumer habits are so hard to change, even in grocery shopping
- Exclusive sneak peek: fresh survey data showing 75% of consumers now use AI in their path to purchase
- How agentic commerce could transform loyalty, pricing, and even group buying
- Lessons from Target Canada and why back-office AI matters more than flashy consumer tools
- Why TikTok might be the blueprint for agentic retail experiences

Retail is changing fast and the agentic future is already here. Subscribe for more conversations, insights, and data shaping the next chapter of commerce.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Consumers are routinized: why habits stick
01:08 – Introducing the Retailgenic Podcast
02:15 – Guest intro: Melissa Minco of CI&T
04:06 – Melissa’s background: from Anthropologie to Target to CI&T
08:52 – Target Canada lessons & retail systems breakdown
12:00 – Apps vs. consumers: adoption, trust, and pushback
15:00 – Agentic commerce: inside vs. outside view
19:00 – Will consumers build their own shopping agents?
23:00 – Exclusive data: 75% of consumers now use AI in their path to purchase
28:00 – Sponsored GEO and consumer trust
33:00 – Agent strategies: retailer, consumer, and third-party
36:00 – Best practices: getting your “back office” right first
40:00 – Checkouts, marketplaces, and the future of digital retail
46:00 – Loyalty in the agentic era: Gen Z, UK vs. US, and discounts
50:00 – Group buying, negotiation, and dynamic pricing
56:00 – Reading the tea leaves: websites, zero-click, and consumer control
01:00:00 – Melissa’s “personal agents” vision of the future
01:05:00 – TikTok as a model for agentic commerce
01:08:00 – Wrap-up & closing thoughts

Report drops at CI&T website soon: https://ciandt.com/us/en-us

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Dr. Amine Allouah completed his PhD at Columbia Business School, specializing in algorithmic game theory and optimization in multi-agent systems. After leading applied science work at Meta across ads, notifications, and marketplace teams, he co-founded My Custom AI to help enterprises deploy tailored AI solutions. His work bridges deep theory with practical applications, shaping how businesses think about LLMs, agents, and the economics of AI.

This week on Retailgentic, we’re joined by Dr. Amine, co-founder of My Custom AI and one of the sharpest minds at the intersection of AI, economics, and retail. In this conversation, we dig deep into:

• Amine’s journey: École Polytechnique → Columbia → Meta → entrepreneurship
• What algorithmic game theory means for real-world AI systems
• Why enterprises need custom models for accuracy, privacy, and cost savings
• The ACES Framework: how agents really “shop” online
• Surprising findings: agents ignore ads, but positioning still matters
• Why MCP isn’t enough, and what’s next for protocols
• Implications for retailers, brands, and the future of retail media

If you’ve ever wondered how agents will reshape retail and what brands need to do right now to prepare, this episode will give you a front-row seat to the future of agentic commerce.

Highlights/Timestamps ⏱️
0:00 – How agents drive omnichannel growth beyond e-commerce
5:00 – Meet guest Amine Allouah: from École Polytechnique to Columbia PhD
9:30 – Game theory, algorithm design, and AI: lessons from his PhD
13:45 – From Meta AI researcher to startup founder: the origin of My Custom AI
18:10 – What My Custom AI does: feasibility studies, custom model training & workshops
23:25 – Why retailers sometimes need their own LLMs: accuracy, privacy & cost savings
29:20 – Beyond LLaMA: multimodal models, recommendation systems, and custom architectures
34:05 – The ACES Framework: building a sandbox to study agent shopping
39:16 – Optimizations around pricing, loyalty & group buying
39:24 – Why group buying startups have struggled
39:35 – Aligning buyer and seller agents for better outcomes
44:15 – Agent behavior insights: Claude and the “ergonomic” keyword example
48:50 – The case for seller-side agents and real-time PDP updates
51:31 – Amazon is the first company to adopt the ACES framework
55:00 – Retail media networks in an agent world: real-time “agentic ads”
58:00 – Will websites die? The future of browsing, checkouts & merchant centers
1:01:00 – Closing thoughts + where to find Amine & the ACES paper

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In this episode of Retailgentic, Deloitte’s Chief Futurist Kasey Lobaugh joins us to explore the future of agentic commerce. Kasey has spent nearly three decades advising global retailers, brands, and manufacturers. He launched Deloitte Digital, now a multibillion-dollar business, and today leads Deloitte’s Future of the Consumer Industry platform. Known for coining the “great bifurcation” of consumers, Kasey helps executives anticipate disruptive forces and chart strategy amid seismic change.

Scot and Kasey unpack the forces reshaping commerce and the role of AI:

• Six forces shaping the consumer industry
• The great bifurcation of value vs. convenience shoppers
• Rise of predictive enterprises
• Fragmentation and shifting demographics
• Agentic AI and digital services growth
• Declining Google traffic and new discovery models
• Why “hopping the cost curve” may be essential

Highlights

• 00:02:00 – Meet Kasey Lobaugh, Deloitte’s Chief Futurist for the consumer industry
• 00:05:00 – The six forces shaping the future: consumer, culture, tech, industry, climate, and politics
• 00:10:30 – Why growth feels constrained: demographics, barriers to entry, and shifting spend
• 00:15:00 – The new bifurcation: asset owners vs. providers of labor
• 00:20:00 – From mass retail to hyper-relevance powered by AI
• 00:23:00 – The predictive enterprise: moving beyond insights to compute-led foresight
• 00:25:30 – Surprising predictive attributes: why buying a cat can forecast retail behavior
• 00:29:30 – Women and wealth: a dramatic shift by 2030
• 00:34:00 – The decline of search and rise of GenAI discovery
• 00:40:00 – Retailers in the age of ChatGPT checkout
• 00:46:00 – AI isn’t blockchain or VR: why adoption curves look different
• 00:50:00 – Creativity unlocked: from AI-generated music to new consumer products
• 00:54:00 – Hopping cost curves: why efficiency alone won’t win the AI era
• 00:57:00 – Closing thoughts: racing to abundance, not the bottom

🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:
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What happens when the marketing funnel collapses and AI takes over discovery? Scot Wingo talks with Andrea Leigh, Amazon veteran and CEO of Allume Group, about the latest Allume Insider Report (AIR).

We cover:
• How ~60% of shoppers now use AI for product research
• “Value” as price and purpose (Gen Z, resale, circular)
• Social commerce’s rise and the blur between entertainment & shopping
• Why D2C sites are crucial for AI readability
• The shaky future of retail media networks and SEO

Andrea pulls back the curtain on how AI, value, and entertainment are rewriting the rules of commerce. This conversation is a roadmap for brands preparing for the collapse of search and the rise of agentic shopping.

⏱️ Time Stamps
01:41 – Guest intro: Andrea Leigh, Amazon alum & CEO of Allume Group.
03:18 – Andrea’s Amazon career and path to founding Allume Group.
06:14 – Amazon negotiations today: bots, automation, and leverage.
06:59 – Tariffs: who pays and why consumers often shoulder it.
08:01 – The origins of the Allume Insider Report (AIR).
11:10 – Three trends shaping commerce: AI help, value, and fun.
12:02 – 60% of shoppers already use AI for product discovery.
15:16 – Gen Z starts searches on TikTok, not Amazon.
19:29 – ChatGPT Checkout: affiliate or true marketplace?
26:11 – Value redefined: bargain-hunting, private label, and resale on the rise.
31:12 – Social commerce explodes: TikTok Shops headed for $17B.
32:47 – “Amazon solved buying but killed shopping.”
40:05 – D2C sites as AI-readable “source of truth.”
46:22 – Retail media and SEO industries under pressure from AI.
53:20 – Amazon’s Rufus and the fight to compete with LLMs.
52:55 – Closing thoughts + download the free AIR report.

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What happens when more than half of online shopping traffic comes from AI agents, not humans?

In this episode of the Retailgentic Podcast, Scot Wingo sits down with Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to unpack the seismic shift happening at the intersection of AI, commerce, and payments.

We cover:

• Is Google really screwed? (and why AI threatens its business model)
• The future of agentic commerce & attribution wars
• Lessons from TrialPay, Affirm, and affiliate marketing
• How platforms like ChatGPT could become checkout destinations
• Why “optimization” may be the killer feature of AI shopping agents

If you’re in e-commerce, retail, fintech, or just want to know how AI will change the way we buy and sell, this is a must-listen.

⏱️ Time Stamps
04:45 – Alex’s early days: shareware & credit card processing

06:26 – TrialPay, affiliates & the Netflix-for-shareware idea

08:45 – Founding Affirm & moving into venture at a16z

09:55 – The “apps practice” and where value accrues (infra vs. apps)

10:57 – “Is Google Screwed?” background & themes

13:02 – Commerce attribution & affiliate marketing evolution

15:04 – Impulse vs. highly considered purchases in AI era

18:27 – Optimization: why AI wins on time vs. money tradeoff

21:00 – Reviews, shill content, and trust problems

23:50 – Hosted checkout: could ChatGPT become a marketplace?

26:14 – Will Apple jump into AI commerce?

28:35 – Coupon codes, group buying, and negotiation by agents

30:04 – How commerce could be “rewired” by AI platforms

31:25 – Closing thoughts & what’s next

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What happens when consumers start trusting AI agents more than friends for shopping advice? On this episode of Retailgentic, we welcome Professor Luca Cian from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Luca brings a unique perspective as a psychologist turned marketing scholar whose research spans visual persuasion, AI adoption, and consumer trust. We dive deep into how shoppers perceive AI in utilitarian vs. hedonic purchases, why trust in AI depends on “augmented decision-making,” and how brands should prepare for an AI-first retail future.

From the paradox of choice to the emerging world of “GenAI Engine Optimization (GEO),” this conversation is packed with insights on how AI is rewriting the rules of marketing, loyalty, and consumer psychology.

Tune in for:

• The psychology of trust in AI: why we accept AI for practical tasks but resist it in creative/hedonic domains
• The paradox of choice and how AI alleviates decision fatigue
• How brands can adapt to the rise of agentic commerce and GEO (GenAI Engine Optimization)
• Future of loyalty programs when shopping decisions are mediated by AI agents

🕒 Timestamps:
00:02:05 — Guest intro: Luca Cion, UVA Darden professor, studies consumer psychology and AI in marketing.

00:09:36 — Early AI research with GPT-3 preview; skepticism then rapid shift in perception.

00:17:12 — Survey: 60% trust AI purchase suggestions more than friends → ties to “paradox of choice.”

00:21:01 — Word-of-Machine Effect: AI trusted for utilitarian products, humans preferred for hedonic ones.

00:28:53 — Trust grows when AI is augmented by humans and shows transparency (black box effect reduced).

00:36:11 — AI Mistake Generalization: consumers forgive humans but not AI; one AI error erodes trust broadly.

00:46:06 — Loyalty as a decision shortcut; in the AI age, human touch and anthropomorphism become vital.

00:50:40 — People blame AI less than humans for unfair treatment (e.g., firing decisions).

00:53:32 — Executive MBA discussions: AI displacing middle management but creating future opportunities.

00:58:00 — Managers should lead with human strategic vision, then use AI/data to validate decisions.

🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along: 
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