Join Jason Goldberg, the Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis and known as 'Retail Geek', as he delivers a fascinating keynote on agentic commerce and the rise of the AI-native consumer. He explores how AI is reshaping consumer behaviors beyond mere efficiencies. Highlighting the decline of traditional discovery methods, Jason emphasizes the rapid shift towards zero-click commerce and the influence of AI agents. He also warns incumbents through a cautionary tale and discusses the concentration of retail growth among a few giants. A must-listen for retail enthusiasts!
42:35
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Optimize For The Whole Iceberg
Think of agentic commerce as the whole iceberg: influence plus transactions, not only robot-handled orders.
Prepare to measure and optimize both robot-driven influence and completed automated purchases.
question_answer ANECDOTE
The Tudor Ice Cautionary Tale
Frederick Tudor built a massive ice business by shipping natural ice worldwide and giving free samples to create demand.
He was ruined by artificial ice factories and later by home ice makers, illustrating incumbents missing new models.
insights INSIGHT
Growth Is Concentrated Among Few Players
Retail growth is highly concentrated: a few incumbents captured most of the incremental sales last year.
Amazon, Walmart and Costco alone accounted for roughly half the $183B growth in U.S. retail.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
This week on the retailgentic podcast, we have an experiment for you. NRF concluded Tuesday Jan 13th and Scot's good friend and podcast partner over at the Jason and Scot show, Jason Goldberg (Chief Digital Commerce Officer at Publicis) was invited to ‘tie the bow’ on the conference in the last keynote: Commerce Disrupted: Rise of the AI Native Consumer.
This episode is the audio from that presentation on 1/13/26. Jason covers:
Agentic commerce, defined clearly: not “AI efficiencies,” but new consumer behaviors (and the full “iceberg” of influence, not just robot-takes-card transactions).
Is it hype or historic? Jason frames the debate (skeptics vs believers) and uses live audience polling to set the stakes.
A disruption of discovery: the decline of “saw in store,” then “search,” then “social”, and now the robot becomes the front door.
The cautionary tale (Tudor Ice): why incumbents often miss the next business model, even when they dominated the last one.
Retail growth is concentrated: a few giants capture a huge share of growth, while challengers (Shein/Temu/TikTok Shop) rewrite the playbook.
AI shopping ramps fast: from research → to product tiles → to direct purchase inside AI experiences, plus retailer catalogs moving upstream.
0-click commerce: the next leap isn’t fewer clicks, it’s no clicks (automation, replenishment, “never let me run out”).
Onsite vs offsite agents: retailers’ on-site assistants (ex: Amazon) vs consumers using neutral offsite agents that choose the retailer for them.
Winning the robots: why optimization shifts toward what models care about (criteria, sources, “GEO/AEO/ACO”), and why this changes constantly.
Change management wins: Doug McMillon’s “How did you use AI to prepare?” as a culture lever—and why org adoption matters as much as tech.
If AI changes the way people discover, it changes everything downstream. Brands, retailers, and platforms all have to learn to win the robot’s shelf.
Notable timestamps
00:00 — The real disruption: new consumer behavior, not efficiency gains
01:43 — Scott sets up the “special episode” + NRF context
03:17 — The experiment: “put you in the audience” (keynote replay)
06:29 — The big questions: how big is agentic commerce + who wins?
08:07 — Skeptics vs believers: “hallucination” vs “overhyped” vs transformational
11:05 — Defining agentic commerce + the “influence vs transaction” iceberg
15:07 — Tudor Ice story: disruption, incumbents, and missing the next model
19:14 — $5.3T retail + who captured the growth (concentration)
22:16 — “Disruption of discovery”: saw-in-store → search → social
25:04 — Viral demand shock example (whipped coffee)
26:53 — Sunscreen example + TikTok → then “ask the robot”
29:08 — “How fast this changed” (recent launches + ecosystem momentum)
30:19 — From “order” to “never let me run out” (automation framing)
31:11 — Clicks: 22 → 4 → “one-click” → 0-click
32:40 — Proof points: agent assistants and rising adoption
33:49 — Offsite agents: buying without choosing a retailer first
34:03 — In-store: pointing ChatGPT at the shelf (real-world agent use)
36:29 — Scale math: small % of prompts can still be massive volume
38:34 — Robots optimize differently + why brands need new processes/tools
39:36 — GEO/AEO vs the bigger strategic layer (Agentic Commerce Optimization)
40:33 — Doug McMillon’s culture lever: “How did you use AI to prepare?”
42:12 — Final message: change management to avoid being the “ice harvesters”
🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along: 📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai 📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic
Retailgentic: Agentic Commerce meets Retail and Brands