AI Shopping How Brands Can Thrive Now

OpenAI has once again shifted the landscape of brand discovery. ChatGPT now features a capability allowing users to browse and shop for products directly through AI-generated recommendations, eliminating the need for search engines, traditional shopping sites, or even scrolling.

This development marks the most significant change in digital commerce since algorithms reshaped homepage interactions. Brands failing to adapt quickly risk becoming irrelevant in a new kind of consumer conversation.

This is more than just an ecommerce update; it's about how individuals decide what is important. The AI that previously assisted with email composition is now guiding consumer purchasing decisions. The critical question for brands is: will AI recommend you?

Welcome to the AI Native Shopfront

The impact of generative AI on creativity has been a frequent topic, but its current influence runs deeper, restructuring the very foundations of brand relevance. ChatGPT's shopping feature rollout serves as confirmation. When users input open-ended prompts such as “best travel gear for a long-haul flight” or “great gifts for under $100,” the AI assistant curates results from across the internet, directing users straight to those products.

Remarkably, this process involves no advertisements and no influence from paid search. It relies solely on AI-curated recommendations, built upon its learnings from a vast digital ecosystem.

This is where the situation becomes critical for marketers. If a brand lacks strong, meaningful signals within this ecosystem—such as reviews, earned media, and trusted advocacy—it simply will not appear in these recommendations. And if it doesn't appear, it doesn't sell.

The Rules of Relevance Have Changed

Many Chief Marketing Officers are still focusing their optimization efforts on yesterday's search engines. However, in this new environment, the algorithm is unseen, the interface is human-like, and the competition includes every brand the AI has ever learned about.

Introducing LLMO: Large Language Model Optimization. Similar to SEO, LLMO involves understanding how AI assesses authority, trust, and relevance—and ensuring a brand meets these criteria. But unlike SEO, securing a top position cannot be bought; it must be earned.

This presents both a strategic opportunity and a significant challenge.

It's not about being the loudest; it's about being credible.

Generative AI tools prioritize helpfulness, clarity, and cultural context. This means brands must actively participate in the conversations from which AI learns. These conversations might occur on platforms like Substack, Reddit, or in editorial reviews. They could also involve user-generated content, product testimonials, or innovative partnerships that generate buzz.

Brands need to appear in these moments not as intrusive noise, but as meaningful contributors. This requires building genuine trust, not just accumulating media exposure. It means creating stories and experiences that are culturally fluent and human, rather than artificial. This is the type of work that powers AI engines and fosters human connection.

Shopping is becoming smarter. We must adapt accordingly.

ChatGPT is now functioning less like a search engine and more like a personal shopper, handling curation, comparison, and conversion all within a single conversation. This is merely the beginning. As platforms like Pinterest, Amazon, and TikTok compete to dominate AI-powered commerce, this new layer of discovery will determine which brands succeed and which ones fade away.

And while AI may be conducting the conversation, humans are still the ones deciding who to trust.

This is where agencies and brand leaders have a vital role: not just in executing the next marketing campaign, but in guiding businesses through this evolving interface, where visibility, integrity, and participation are more crucial than ever.

Three ways brands can stay in the conversation:

1. Audit your presence across trusted sources, media, reviews, forums, and expert roundups. Are you part of the narrative, or absent from it?
2. Invest in participatory brand building. Encourage organic advocacy. Let real users tell real stories. Give culture something worth repeating.
3. Start thinking like a teacher, not just a marketer. AI models learn from what we put into the world. Make sure your content is the kind that educates, inspires, and earns its place in future prompts.

This isn't about fearing technology. It's about showing up.

AI shopping isn't the end of brand-building; it's the next iteration. The brands that win won't be the loudest—they'll be the most trusted, the most helpful, and the most consistently present in the culture that AI learns from.

That’s the opportunity in front of us, and the responsibility too.

Jill Smith is the CEO of Iris Americas, leading the agency’s operations across key locations including New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, and Sao Paulo. A ten-year veteran of Iris and its parent company Cheil. Jill began her career in the art world, working in the nonprofit arts sector in Montreal before moving to New York, where she founded her own boutique creative agency, Mayonnaise. Continue the conversation with her on LinkedIn.