Why Chat AI Is The Next Step In Ecommerce
Just like advanced site search became the norm on eCommerce sites, shopping chat AI assistants are taking centre stage these days. Here's why.
Published July 16, 2025.
The eCommerce world doesn’t exist inside a vacuum. It continues to interact with general trends in the technology world as well as the consumer world. When new trends emerge on the eCommerce scene, this is often because they have origins in the general consumer landscape.
Original Site Search
We can see this for example, in terms of site search. In the early models of site search, they all followed similar formats and contained core functions. These core functions were:
Search bar
Results display
Relevance ranking
Advanced Site Search
These constitute the key elements needed for a site search to be functional. For the most part people used these kinds of search bars on information platforms such as Google. However, over time, the search bar was developed to contain further advanced functionality. For example:
Autocomplete/Suggestions: the search bar predicts what the user is searching for before they finish typing
AI-Powered Recommendations: the results bar offer relevant products or content based on user behavior
Multimodal Search: searching in the bar with alternative data such as image, voice or audio
Personalization: personalized results within the search bar
Merchandising: merchant based merchandising rules applied within search
Natural Language Processing: users can search in their own language, the results will be sourced based on intent rather than specific keyword necessity
Vector Search: a more human-centric method of searching using user intent to provide results
Fast Simon's Tailored eCommerce Search Results
AI-powered product recommendations and site navigation
Improve search visibility
Boost consumer confidence with relevant results
The Result Of Advanced Site Search
Once users got a taste of advanced site search, it had a big impact on the way users expected to interact with search functions. Because they were receiving a more advanced function already, they expected this same level of search on their eCommerce stores.
Once it had become a given, all eCommerce stores began to offer this level of functionality on their online stores. Once this had begun, all stores needed to offer this in order to stay relevant with the other stores' offerings.
Chat AI Expectations
Today, we are very used to online eCommerce stores offering an advanced AI backed site search function. In fact, if stores aren’t offering this these days then it means they are falling short of meeting expectations, and of the stores of their competitors.
Today, we are seeing a similar trend happening with the growth of AI technology in other areas of the web. Since the rise of ChatGPT and conversational commerce, more shoppers are coming to expect this.
More people are turning to ChatGPT than ever before, both as a search interface, but also as a creative and informative platform. These days even the Google search engine offers an AI generated response to queries before its usual dropdown menu.
Having AI answering questions has become expected and popular. So naturally, this has had an effect on the eCommerce world.
Chat AI Assistants
People want to be able to interact with interfaces these days. We can see this through the rise of conversational commerce. Since people expect AI interaction in other places on the internet, naturally they want to find this in eCommerce too.
This is why AI Shopping Assistants are becoming so popular. People have become used to having an AI system answering their queries in natural language, having an informed conversation as opposed to just a simple answer to a question.
Conversational commerce (chatbots) are eCommerce’s response to this need. Customers still want to achieve this level of interaction in eCommerce stores, and the eCommerce world is answering. This is why having AI chatbots in eCommerce these days is no longer an optional extra, it is something customers are coming to expect, and the next logical step.
Conclusion
Just as we have seen happen with advanced AI backed site search before us, chat AI technology is arriving in the eCommerce world and it is here to stay. Although offering it currently may seem as though you are offering something extra, sooner rather than later you will realise that it is actually the expected norm for shoppers wanting the standard eCommerce experience.
