Shopping AI now picks products for you, and retailers are adjusting

Many online searches for JD Sports products now end before the shopper ever visits the company's website. Katie Richardson, the sports fashion retailer's director of customer retention marketing, says AI summaries are answering questions first. Retailers are now working to stay visible and trusted in that new first step.

What changed

For years, online shopping followed a simple path: search, then click. Richardson says that path has become a more AI-driven mix where discovery often happens outside the retailer's own site. JD Sports is leaning into what it calls agentic commerce. That means AI acts as a proactive representative for the customer, helping pick products instead of waiting for the shopper to browse.

How JD Sports is responding

JD Sports works with Braze, a customer engagement platform. The software tracks small signals, such as a shopper pausing on a sneaker photo on their phone, and can change the shopper's journey right away. Braze says its tools can produce dozens of on-brand message variants. It also says built-in guardrails turn brand standards into rules the AI must follow. Braze's Meredith Mitchell says the technology must answer four questions in real time:

• What should we say?
• What should we show?
• Where should we show it?
• When is this customer most likely to engage?

The trust gap

Shoppers are not fully on board. Richardson says less than half of JD Sports' core 18-24 customers trust AI-assisted shopping. The company says it is focused on governance and accuracy, privacy-first identification, and security and fraud protection. The article also notes that wrong or off-brand AI output, often called hallucinations, is a major worry for retail executives.

Local flavor is another concern. Richardson says one unified AI model is efficient but risks smoothing over regional sneaker culture. JD Sports says it uses AI and rules to tailor product choices for specific markets and channels.

What to do

If you sell online, the main point is that shoppers may decide through AI answers before they see your site. The article does not offer a checklist, but its themes point to a few basics:

• Keep product details clear and accurate.
• Be open about how customer data is used.
• Keep your messaging consistent and on brand.

What is not known

The article gives no figures on how many searches end early. It also does not say how well JD Sports' AI tools are working.