The Future of Digital Commerce: Preparing for AI and Automation in a Composable World
Composability is the key to making the most of the next generation of digital and omnichannel experiences.
We’ve touched on the history of composable, the changing role of narratives and the expanding definition of composability, and the role of collaboration in ensuring success. For the final piece in this series, we’re taking a look at the profound role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the ongoing evolution of digital commerce experiences.
AI and automation are increasingly central to the future of customer experiences, and there is a strong case to be made that the best way for businesses to prepare for it is by adopting composable architectures, which have the flexibility and scalability needed to thrive in the age of AI. By leveraging the power of composability, companies can unlock the full potential of AI-driven innovation and create seamless, omnichannel experiences for their customers.
Unlocking AI in Composable Commerce
AI has almost infinite applications, and determining where and how to apply it to a business is one of the most pressing challenges business leaders face. There are, however, specific areas in commerce where AI is particularly well-suited.
As CSO at commercetools, Kelly Goestch spends a significant amount of time these days exploring the applications for AI and where vendors and brands can be making the most of the technology. "I see AI useful for two things,” Goetsch told me. “Anything around decisioning—so routing, fraud, scoring, payment routing, search, anything like that—we see a lot of really interesting use cases there. The other is around content generation—so product catalogs and PIMs, CMSs and even entire websites / mobile apps."
Even in that limited list, the options can seem overwhelming. Eli Finkelshteyn, Founder and CEO of Constructor, recommended anchoring AI discussions and decision-making around two core aspects when we sat down together at MACH 3 in June.
“There are two things that I think are really important for companies to keep in mind with AI. One of them is that AI is a means to an end,” Finkelshteyn said. “I think in every hype cycle, people confuse means and ends. They'll say, ‘I need to do AI’ and you ask them why and they'll say ‘Because it's AI.’ You don't want to just have AI for its own sake. It’s a means to an end. You have a business goal that you're trying to solve and you only use AI if you have good reason to believe it will help with that business goal, and ideally you find a way to test that hypothesis before fully committing to it.”
As with past tech innovations, hype can inflate expectations, leading to an initial surge followed by a drop-off, often taking years to recover. However, recent AI advancements have moved many new applications into the mainstream, with its evolution accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Which is where Finkelshteyn’s second point comes in.
“The second thing is that with a lot of the new AI that's coming out, it's not a marginal improvement over something that already exists. It's really a fundamentally new thing,” continued Finkelshteyn. “And because of that it can really be a lot better than what came before for certain problems and you can really get outsized returns, because the technology is so much better.”
The experiences AI can enable today offer completely new mental models and modes of operating from what has come before. And much of that hinges on deeply connected data sets.
Seamless Data: The Backbone of AI in Commerce
The success of AI in digital commerce is explicitly tied to the availability and interoperability of data across systems and platforms. Data interoperability means that different components—such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, e-commerce platforms, and marketing automation tools—can communicate and share data without friction. This enables businesses to build a comprehensive view of their customers, which is essential for delivering personalized, AI-powered experiences. The more data AI systems have access to, the smarter and more effective they become.
Data is what makes AI work, but making sure that data is available when and where it’s needed is where composability comes in.
Dean Holmes, Director, Channels & Alliances (The Americas) at Contentful, noted the necessity of a true composable core for creating modern commerce experiences. “Some of these old [platforms]… I don't believe they're there yet from a foundational perspective. They didn't rewrite the code for all these things. They are still a monolith, plus some candy coating on top.”
Composable architectures, with their emphasis on modularity and API-driven integration, make it easier for businesses to collect, analyze, and act on data from a variety of sources. This not only improves the accuracy and relevance of AI-driven recommendations but also allows businesses to respond more quickly to changing customer needs and market conditions.
"One of the biggest problems with the new world that we live in, where everybody cares more about AI, is that you have all of these legacy solutions that were never built with an AI intent trying to say 'us too.' And they’re often some of the loudest voices yelling about AI, even when they only just recently jumped on the bandwagon and only have a couple of bolted-on, basic AI features,” said Fineklshteyn. “So within search, for example, older search engines built to match on keywords are just stapling AI features to themselves and claiming to be an AI-based engine. Then people test with them, see poor results, and think it's an indictment of AI, not realizing the actual issue was creative branding by a legacy solution trying to stay relevant.”
With an architecture that supports data interoperability, businesses can ensure that AI has access to the right data at the right time.
Preparing for the Future: The Strategic Advantage of Composability
As AI and automation become more integral to digital commerce, businesses that have embraced composable architectures will be better positioned to capitalize on these technologies. With systems that communicate and share information seamlessly, companies can create a technology stack that supports continuous innovation and adaptation.
Finkelshteyn believes that the strategic advantage of composability will only grow as AI continues to evolve. “The beauty about composability is… you don't have to change everything to be AI, and you don't have to take that kind of cop out approach of bolting AI on. You can build a new composable module from scratch entirely on AI. You can actually do it correctly, and you can have it exist alongside the rest of your non-AI stack and test it because it was made in a composable manner and was not made to require swapping everything out.”
Composability enables seamless AI integration by allowing new AI-powered modules to be built from scratch alongside existing systems. Developers value the ease of API-driven, low-code tools, while marketers are increasingly drawn to how these advancements simplify their work, focusing on outcomes rather than the technical details.
“[Developers] love most of the composable tools because they're API-driven, they're easy— low-code or no code,” said Holmes. “The marketer now is starting to sense how that can be. And I think they're gravitating towards that… They don't care about the plumbing, they don't care how it's made. Just tell me how that's going to make my life easier.”
The ability to speed-up, simplify, and ultimately improve core parts of the process for countless roles is a crucial accelerant to AI adoption, and part of how it will have staying power beyond the hype cycle.
“We're guiding our partners to look more at performance of the content, to inform the marketer of what the data is telling them,” continued Holmes. “What's really moving the needle in the experience part of it? What's going to drive your KPIs higher, reduce costs in paid media, reduce costs in social, all those different things. So the performance part of it is where we're really focused with the AI piece.”
Embracing the Future of Digital Commerce
The future of digital commerce is undoubtedly intertwined with the rise of AI and automation. As businesses prepare for this new era, the adoption of composable architectures will be essential. By focusing on data interoperability and leveraging composability to create seamless, omnichannel experiences, companies can unlock the full potential of AI-driven innovation.
Treating data as a strategic asset and ensuring that it can flow freely across all systems, channels, and devices means businesses will not only enhance their customer experiences, they’ll also position themselves to thrive in a rapidly changing digital landscape. The future of commerce is composable, and those who embrace this approach will be well-equipped to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the AI-driven world.
Jason Cottrell
Founder and CEO, Orium
Jason Cottrell is the CEO & Founder of Orium, the leading composable commerce consultancy and system integrator in the Americas. He works closely with clients and partners to ensure business goals and customer needs are being met, leading the Orium team through ambitious transformation programs at the intersection of commerce, composability, and customer data.