The way people find products has a new channel. AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity are becoming a shopping discovery layer that sits alongside search and social.  Instead of typing keywords and scrolling results, shoppers describe what they want in plain language: “What’s the best waterproof hiking boot under $150?” or “I need a gift for a ten-year-old who’s into science.” The AI comes back with specific recommendations, comparisons, and increasingly, a way to buy right there. Think of it as a new front door to your shop. Every recommendation an agent makes still points back to a store with real inventory and a unique checkout. Your products, fulfillment, and customer relationships continue as they are. What’s changing is how these systems decide which products to surface. Traditional search works with pages. You optimize a product listing, Google crawls it, and a human browses the results. AI agents work differently.…