When AI is reshaping the relationship between brands and their customers

Optimi was present at two unmissable global retail events at the start of the year: One to One Retail E-Commerce in Monaco and NRF 2026 in New York. Two events, two continents, one single topic that dominated every conversation: agentic commerce.

At NRF in New York (the world's largest retail gathering, bringing together more than 40,000 professionals every January), the role of AI in purchasing processes ran through every keynote and roundtable. It was no longer a forward-looking topic reserved for "innovation" sessions, it sat at the heart of operational discussions, alongside supply chain and user-experience personalization.

The same tone prevailed at One to One in Monaco, a European event particularly valued by decision-makers.

It was in this context that leaders of major online retailers reached a shared conclusion: the AI agent is establishing itself as the new intermediary between the brand and its customer.

Browsing logic is giving way to query logic. Consumers no longer choose where to go. They delegate part of the journey to an agent that synthesizes, recommends, and sometimes purchases on their behalf.

Tomorrow, the challenge will no longer simply be ranking on Google, but being recommended by AI.

Why does it matter?

Twenty years of SEO built around Google rankings are no longer sufficient to ensure brand visibility.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the challenge of the moment: becoming a source that AI models consider reliable and worth drawing from.

The mechanics are different from SEO. A search engine ranks pages, an AI model synthesizes sources it considers coherent, well-structured, and carrying a recognized level of expertise. That depends on:

• Clean product data,
• Semantic schemas,
• Dense editorial content,
• Solid site infrastructure.

What Monaco and New York confirmed is that the window for action is narrow. Without a solid GEO strategy and robust infrastructure, your brand loses direct traffic and becomes dependent on a new layer of intermediation it does not control.