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Stay up-to-date on the rapidly evolving world of AI search, and how your customers are discovering products.

Amazon Rufus comes out of beta as Alexa for Shopping: What it means for Brands
Amazon has merged Rufus, its conversational shopping agent, with Alexa to launch a brand new shopping agent: Alexa for Shopping.

Siri Now Has Citations. Here's What Brands Should Do About It
Last month Apple put an AI shopping agent one swipe from the lock screen, on 2 billion devices.

Universal Cart is live, and Target is selling through it. Here is what brands need to do now.
Google's Universal Cart, the intelligent cross-merchant cart unveiled at I/O in May, has been seen operating in real accounts, and Target has confirmed it is now selling directly through Google's checkout.

Agentic Commerce Comes to Claude: What Your Brand Should Do
Claude is moving into shopping. Reports have surfaced of product cards appearing directly inside Claude's answers, the clearest signal yet that one of the world's fastest-growing AI assistants is building toward agentic commerce.

Amazon's new 75-character title limit: what it means for brands
On 10 June 2026, Amazon told sellers that from 27 July, product titles in every category except media must fit inside 75 characters, spaces included.

Sparky Comes to Walmart.com: What the Website Rollout Means for Brands
Sparky is no longer an app-only experience. Walmart has now rolled its AI shopping assistant out across Walmart.com, putting it in front of every desktop and mobile web shopper rather than just the app audience that has been using it since launch.

Apple launches Siri AI: What it means for Agentic Commerce
Apple has rebuilt Siri from the ground up. At WWDC 2026 the company unveiled Siri AI, a fully conversational assistant that holds multi-turn conversations, draws on real-time world knowledge, and can take action across the apps and data on your device.

Amazon's "Know Before You Buy" Is Live: How Synthetic Personas Decide What Shoppers See, and How to Optimise for It
A new Amazon feature has started appearing on product pages, and it tells us a great deal about where the platform is heading. It's called "Know Before You Buy," and the way it behaves changes depending on who is looking at the page.

Google I/O 2026: What the Agentic Commerce Announcements Mean for Brands
At Google I/O 2026 on May 19, Google announced Universal Cart, expanded AI Mode capabilities, and a new Merchant Center attribute schema called Conversational Attributes.

Ask Trevor: how Argos' shopping agent works, and how brands should optimise for it
Argos has quietly shipped one of the more interesting shopping agents in UK retail. Ask Trevor sits inside the Argos site and answers conversational queries like "best tv for living room" or "what should I buy my dad for Christmas" with a shortlist of real products, prices, ratings, and a written justification for each pick.

Amazon & Meta Join the UCP Council: Here Is What That Means for Your Brand
Five names changed agentic commerce on Friday. Amazon. Meta. Microsoft. Salesforce. Stripe. All five took seats on the Universal Commerce Protocol Technical Council, joining Google, Shopify, Etsy, Target and Wayfair around a single governance table.

60% of Amazon Shoppers Now Use Rufus and Those Who Do Purchase 2.74x More: How to Prepare Your Brand Today
60% of heavy Amazon users now use Rufus in their shopping sessions. Read about the surge in adoption and learn how to prepare your brand for this new reality.

Amazon Sponsored Prompts: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon's Latest Ad Format
Amazon just made the biggest change to its advertising platform in years. At the Amazon Ad Summit in Milan, the company announced Sponsored Prompts, a brand new ad format that is already live on the platform and is set to reshape how brands reach shoppers for the next decade.

Tesco Launches AI Shopping: How Grocery Brands Should Optimise for Retailer-Owned AI Assistants
When Tesco's AI assistant rolls out to customers later this year, it will do something no search bar has ever done: it will take a shopper's dietary preferences, purchase history, and what's already in their fridge, and build them a meal plan with a basket attached.

How to optimise for Gemini-powered retailer shopping agents like "Ask Macy’s"
Macy’s, the $22bn-a-year retailer, has launched its own on-site shopping agent, Ask Macy’s. Early reports show that revenue per visit is 4.75 times higher among customers who use the assistant compared to those who do not.

What Carrefour Shopping on ChatGPT Teaches Us About Agentic Commerce
The headlines treated it as a milestone. Carrefour became the first major European retailer to let shoppers build a grocery basket directly inside ChatGPT, giving France's estimated 26 million ChatGPT users the ability to plan meals, filter by dietary preference, and send a basket to checkout without leaving the chat interface. It is a genuine first. But the more important story is not the announcement.

Gap Adopts UCP: How Brands Can Optimise for Agentic Shopping in Gemini
Gap has become the first major fashion retailer to launch Instant Checkout inside Google Gemini.

Meta launches agentic commerce and what it means for online sellers
Meta is actively building a shopping experience directly into Meta AI on the web.

How to get your brand recommended by OpenClaw
Over the past few weeks, a new open-source project, OpenClaw, has spread quickly across the AI community. Developers are experimenting with it, founders are building around it, and it is becoming a reference point in conversations about where consumer software is heading.

ChatGPT Ads & The Implications For eCommerce Brands
OpenAI is beginning to test advertising inside ChatGPT for logged-in users on its Free and Go tiers in the United States.

Meta teases the arrival of agentic commerce: What it means for brands
During Meta’s latest earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that agentic commerce is moving from concept to product inside the company.

Azoma wins best startup at Shoptalk Luxe, Abu Dhabi
Azoma, the leading platform for Agentic Commerce & AI Search Optimization, has been voted as the best startup at Shoptalk Luxe.

The shopping cart looks to be coming to ChatGPT: What it means for online sellers
According to TestingCatalog, a beta feature tracker for LLM products, at least one user has reported seeing a dedicated cart interface inside ChatGPT.

Google launches personalization in AI Mode: Why it's another step towards Agentic Commerce
The next phase of search is not about accessing more content. It is about understanding you.

ChatGPT to take a 4% cut for direct checkout: How brands should prepare
Shopify has confirmed that it will soon enable direct checkout through AI chatbots, including ChatGPT. The rollout is expected later this month. Merchants whose products are purchased via ChatGPT’s checkout will pay OpenAI a 4% fee on those transactions.

Agentic Commerce Is Here: What the Universal Commerce Protocol Means for Online Sellers
Agentic commerce has firmly arrived. What only a year ago felt like a far-off reality, maybe even something out of a science fiction novel, is now going live across the world’s largest consumer platform: Google.

ChatGPT Health Signals a Shift Toward the Agentic Personal Assistant
The launch of ChatGPT Health marks a meaningful step toward Sam Altman’s vision of an agentic personal assistant. These are the implications for consumer brands.

What’s the most popular LLM? What the latest data shows
ChatGPT remains the market leader, but its share has fallen from ~87% to ~68% over 12 months as new demand increasingly goes to competitors rather than defaulting to OpenAI.

2026 AI & Ecommerce Predictions (Agentic Commerce, AI Wearables, The Death of Prompting and more)
On their podcast The New Frontier, Founder & CEO of Azoma Max Sinclair sits down with co-host AI influencer Joanna Lambadjieva to discuss their top predictions for the coming year.

What’s the Best LLM for Shopping? What the Latest Research Shows
Large language models are increasingly used to help people shop online. They suggest products, compare options and explain why something might be a good choice. But which model is actually best at this?

GPT-5.2 Explained: What eCommerce Brands Need to Know to Optimise Their Visibility
With the release of GPT 5.2, the GEO landscape has once again shifted. Here are our top actionable tips for eCommerce brands to optimise their visibility in this new model.

AI Drove $14.2 Billion in Black Friday Sales as Rufus Usage Surged to 38%: What This Means for the future of commerce
The Black Friday 2025 data is in, and it should terrify any brand without an AI visibility strategy: Rufus alone drove $10 billion in incremental sales while processing 38% of Amazon sessions, and AI traffic to retail sites exploded 805% year-over-year. This isn't a trend to monitor - it's a fundamental shift in how products get discovered and purchased, with algorithms already determining which brands exist in the eyes of AI-assisted shoppers.

ChatGPT Just Launched Shopping Research - What Consumer Brands Need to Know
OpenAI launched Shopping Research on November 24, 2025, introducing a dedicated shopping experience powered by a reinforcement-trained variant of GPT-5 mini that fundamentally changes how 700 million ChatGPT users discover products.

Azoma Founder Max Sinclair talks AI Search on stage at Alibaba's CoCreate '25
"The future is here, it's just not yet equally distributed." William Gibson's famous quote perfectly captures what I witnessed at CoCreate2025 last Friday, listening on stage Stephanie Zhao from Alibaba Group unveil their latest AI shopping innovations.

Target Joins the AI Shopping Race: What Gift Finder and Store Mode Mean for Brand Visibility
Target's launch of AI-powered shopping features on November 12, 2025 marks another major retailer embracing conversational commerce, joining Amazon's Rufus (which drives $10 billion in incremental sales) and Walmart's Sparky in transforming how millions discover and purchase products.

Goodbye Chrome? ChatGPT Atlas Is Set to Become the New Gateway to Online Shopping
How browsers like Mosaic and Chrome shaped the web, and why Atlas marks the next major shift from search to conversation.

OpenAI’s Partnership with Walmart: How this Changes everything for Vendors
The retail landscape just experienced a seismic shift. On October 14, 2025, Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI to enable shopping directly through ChatGPT, giving 700 million weekly ChatGPT users instant access to Walmart's entire product catalog without ever visiting Walmart.com. Combined with Walmart's proprietary AI assistant Sparky, which CEO Doug McMillon projects will become "the primary vehicle for discovery, shopping and for managing everything from reorders to returns", the message is clear: conversational AI is now the storefront. For Walmart vendors, this raises an existential question: When algorithms, not search bars, decide what gets recommended, how do you ensure your products are even visible?

ChatGPT Shopping: What Merchants Need to Know About Instant Checkout
OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, letting 700M+ weekly users buy from Etsy and Shopify merchants directly in chat. Here's what this means for your business and how to get enabled.

Who Talks to the Machines?
Who Talks to the Machines?

Partnership Announcement - Mars Inc x Azoma
Mars Inc & Azoma launch a global partnership.

The Sources ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews cite the most, per query type
Publishing Azoma's data from millions of prompts showing what sources AI Answer Engines like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews cite, for general and ecommerce queries.

Stop Sleeping on Bing: Your Back Door into AI Search Visibility
For twenty years, the mantra was simple: optimize for Google. But in 2025, search visibility isn’t just about Google rankings. It’s about where AI systems — from GPT-5 to Microsoft Copilot — pull their answers.

AI Is Now the New Search Bar for Shopping — What Retailers and Brands Need to Know
More than half of British consumers (55%) are now using generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help them shop online, according to new research from Omnisend. What began as an experiment in conversational search is rapidly becoming the default way people discover, compare, and buy products.

Vogue Business Spotlights Azoma.ai
How E-Commerce Must Adapt to AI-based Search

ChatGPT agent is ready to introduce itself
ChatGPT agent is ready to introduce itself.

OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome
OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome.

Condé Nast and Hearst strike Amazon AI licensing deals for Rufus
Condé Nast and Hearst strike Amazon AI licensing deals for Rufus.

Why Azoma.ai Leads the Generative Engine Optimization Revolution
A Comprehensive Analysis.

Google’s New MUVERA Algorithm Improves Search
Google’s New MUVERA Algorithm Improves Search.

Audio Is the New Dataset
Inside the LLM Gold Rush for Podcasts.

How to Optimize for Target AI: Bullseye Gift Finder and Shopping Assistant
Complete guide to Target AI optimization. How Gift Finder and Shopping Assistant work, competitive analysis vs Rufus/Sparky, and proven tactics.

ChatGPT Web Browser, Perplexity Comet, and Google Mariner: The Future of Search is Agentic
OpenAI's ChatGPT browser, Perplexity Comet, and Google Mariner represent the future of agentic search. Compare features, strategy, and what this means for Google's search dominance in 2025.

GPT-5 Launch: How It Will Transform Brand Discovery
GPT-5's 2025 launch will revolutionize how customers find brands through AI. Learn intelligent routing, UGC integration & personal context changes.

The Science Papers Behind Sparky: How Sellers can get Recommended by Walmart's AI Search
How Walmart Sellers can Optimize their Product Listings to be Recommended by Walmart Sparky.

Less Traffic, More Sales: Why AI Search Converts Better
Websites will continue to lose traffic due to AI search experiences like AI mode and ChatGPT, but the traffic they do receive will be higher converting.

ChatGPT Traffic Overtakes Wikipedia
ChatGPT has officially overtaken Wikipedia in monthly traffic. The irony? ChatGPT was trained on Wikipedia data. The insight? It is ChatGPT's most cited platform.

The Impact of Personalized Search in Google AI Mode
Learn about personalized search and how Google’s personal context will change SEO and gain insights into persona optimization.

SynthID: Workarounds and Implications of Googles AI Detection
Google's new SynthID digitally watermarks content, including text, images, video, and sound.

What Google AI Mode Means for Search Results
AI Mode represents the most significant evolution in Google since the introduction of RankBrain, fundamentally changing how users interact with answer engines.

ChatGPT Referral Traffic: 13 Promising Categories for AI Search
Our study of ChatGPT referral traffic reveals which business categories will be the first to adopt AI search.

What Fidji Simo’s Appointment Signals for OpenAI
Fidji Simo’s appointment as CEO of Applications at OpenAI has sparked buzz about AI and e-commerce — but the reality is more complex. Here’s what her new role really means, and why it still signals a shift in how AI will reach the consumer internet.

How to Appear in the New ChatGPT Shopping Experience
Discover how to optimize your online shopping experience with ChatGPT Shopping. This article covers all the fundamentals you need for AI Shopping Optimization.

Azoma.ai Launches GPT-4 Image API Integration for E-Commerce Brands
Azoma.ai is proud to announce the immediate availability of OpenAI’s gpt-image-1 API—ChatGPT-4’s native image-generation engine—within our enterprise-grade GEO platform, live just 72 hours after OpenAI’s public release OpenAI. This milestone reinforces Azoma's commitment to rapid innovation, delivering studio-quality visuals and conversion maximization for e-commerce brands at light speed.

ChatGPT + Shopify: AI-Native Commerce and What Comes Next
OpenAI's ChatGPT is on the verge of integrating a native "Buy Now" feature, potentially through a partnership with Shopify. This move signifies a transformation from a conversational assistant to a full-fledged commerce platform.

How to increase your share of mentions on Alexa+
Amazon's integration of Alexa+ with Rufus and Claude is revolutionizing product discovery through conversational AI. Implement practical strategies to optimize your listings for increased visibility in this new shopping paradigm.

53% of Shoppers to Use Generative AI Tools by 2025, Adobe Survey
Adobe's latest report reveals 53% of consumers are using AI shopping assistants in 2025, with traffic from tools like ChatGPT increasing by 1,950% year-over-year and generating visitors who show 8% higher engagement, browse 12% more pages, and are 23% less likely to bounce.

How much are Amazon Shoppers actually using RUFUS?
In October '24 Rufus answered ~274.3 million daily questions, or ~13.7% of total Amazon searches. This percentage is growing rapidly and could be 25-35% by the end of 2025.

2025: Embrace ChatGPT Search and Generative Engine Optimization
AI chatbots like ChatGPT are reshaping search in 2025, requiring businesses to shift from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) techniques. Platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT Search are seeing rapid adoption, with users favoring longer, conversation-style queries over traditional keyword searches.

How ecommerce sellers can optimize for ChatGPT Search
To optimize for ChatGPT Search, eCommerce sellers should focus on intent-based matching by creating in-depth, authoritative, and user-focused content that aligns with AI-driven search priorities.

Lead the AI shift. Or lose to it

Future-Proof Your Brand for AI Search

Ensure your brand is seen, surfaced, and preferred in AI-powered search, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and more.