The Quick Buyers’ Guide for Generative AI in Ecommerce

Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly evolving, with its financial potential continually increasing. In the apparel, fashion, and luxury sector alone, McKinsey reports that GenAI could add up to $275 billion in operating profits by 2028. 

Ecommerce retailers and brands worldwide are already leveraging GenAI to streamline operations, secure a competitive advantage, and boost profitability. Leading companies are strategically using AI to improve the customer experience.

If you haven’t embraced the technology yet, now is the perfect time. Compare GenAI vendors and solutions with these quick tips to ensure you're making the best decision for your brand.   

How to Evaluate Generative AI Solutions

Last February, the Federal Trade Commission warned businesses to avoid making false or unsubstantiated claims about AI capabilities. However, many companies ignore this advice, leading to a practice known as AI washing.

AI washing, similar to “greenwashing,” involves companies exaggerating or misrepresenting themselves through misleading marketing or false claims. With AI washing, vendors inflate claims, use vague AI buzzwords, or label basic components as AI — misleading buyers about the product's true capabilities.

To avoid being deceived, educate yourself and ask vendors critical questions before making any commitments:

• Can you prove how your AI delivers tangible results for clients? A true AI-driven solution built for ecommerce should facilitate hitting business KPIs. Proof shouldn’t be difficult to find.
  
  
• Does your AI get smarter over time? If vendors’ AI becomes more sophisticated over time, that means they invested time in developing an AI that affords more complex processing with minimal human intervention — as is the case with GenAI solutions. 
  
  
• Was your AI built in-house or integrated through acquisition? Acquisition isn’t an automatic red flag, but it is a main contributor to built-in technical debt. If a vendor did make an acquisition, you should ask how well the tech has been integrated with the core product.
  
  
• How much human intervention is necessary? AI-washed products often rely heavily on human intervention to compensate for limited AI capabilities. Understanding the extent to which human involvement is necessary can reveal whether the product’s AI claims are exaggerated. 
  
  
• Does AI play a major or minor role in the overall solution? While both native AI and AI features leverage artificial intelligence technologies, they differ in scope, complexity, development approach, and impact on the systems in which they are employed.  

Build vs. Buy: Should You Create or Purchase GenAI Solutions?

And then there comes the question from the early days of the internet that rears its head around new technology — like GenAI — every few years: What should you build and what should you buy? Should you build your own large language models (LLMs), and should you build the technology to power them yourself?

While it may be fun at first, the industry is changing too rapidly to confidently go it alone.

“GenAI is a fast-moving field, and there's a lot of potential value for the fastest movers who know how to capitalize on and leverage the currently available technology. [AI Shopping Assistant] already exists — and is starting to win awards. … [Attribute Enrichment] is already here, too. It’s A/B tested on many retail sites, driving real revenue increases, and decreasing manual tagging work. What’s still missing is the innovation built upon these foundations: determining ideal use cases for an AI Shopping Assistant, designing the UI, and building user trust, to name a few examples. While some ecommerce companies reinvent the wheel and try to build their own versions, others will innovate on top of what already exists — getting to user value first. We’ve seen this movie before. We know how it ends. Focus on innovation. Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

- Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and Co-founder of Constructor

Generative AI Is Already Here. What Will You Do?

Generative AI isn’t a project for the distant future. It’s already here, transforming ecommerce. 

As its use cases expand across the industry — from streamlining customer support with chatbots and optimizing supply chain management to facilitating content creation and more — embracing GenAI-powered solutions becomes increasingly compelling. Implementing this technology streamlines operations, boosts productivity, and positions businesses as innovative leaders, while also enhancing customer experience and building brand trust and loyalty.

Say yes to shaping the ecommerce future into one that benefits both businesses and customers alike. Say yes to the future of AI in product discovery.