CX Today
AI Could Steal Your Customer Before They Reach Your Site
In this CX Today interview, Rhys Fisher, Associate Editor at CX Today, speaks with Christina Augustine, COO of Bloomreach, about the growing impact of AI on product discovery, personalization, and retailer loyalty. With shoppers increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude where to buy, the conversation unpacks whether brands deliver the same depth, confidence, and relevance once customers arrive on their own sites? AI is quickly becoming the first stop in the shopping journey. But if customers discover a product through an AI assistant, what happens when they land on a retailer’s website and the experience feels like it has been left behind? Augustine reflects on the findings from Bloomreach’s latest consumer research and discusses what retailers need to do next. In this interview, they cover: Why AI is helping shoppers at the two hardest points in the journey: knowing where to start and feeling confident enough to buy. Why retailers should treat conversational queries as valuable first-party customer signals, not a future experiment. How richer product data, from boot weight to gift-buying context, can prevent customers from bouncing elsewhere. Why useful AI should give customers more agency, rather than push urgency tactics that can damage trust. One quote sums up the shift: “Before I was looking at pixel clicks, right? Like, and reading the tea leaves… Now you don’t have to guess.” Retail, ecommerce, and CX leaders must review where customers are forced to infer product information, test conversational discovery around high-consideration purchases, and make sure the experience does not break when a shopper moves from an AI answer engine to your site. For more Customer Experience tech news visit https://www.cxtoday.com
