It was only a year ago that a panicky retail industry was scrambling to retool for the AI revolution while harboring doubts about such staggering investments ever paying off. Yes, it was powerfully efficient on the expense and logistics side. But would it drive enough retail revenue growth to justify the extravagant plunge?

Today, the crowd of shoppers who have embraced AI-driven “conversational commerce” is growing fast, but so far it’s been mostly a case of people bypassing traditional search (SEO). According to a recent report by Salesforce.com, the share of consumers who found products through SEO in the last year fell by 15% while those who did so using AI tools or apps grew by 38%.

Today, no retail exec should doubt that AI is a “do or die” imperative for consumer-facing companies, both in marketing and as an........

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