This is what happens when a shift goes from theory to reality | Issue 16

This morning I was scrolling LinkedIn and something stood out right away. Four of the first ten posts I saw were about AI. They weren’t saying the same thing, and they weren’t even coming from the same angle, but they were all pointing in the same direction.

Some were focused on tools replacing tools. Others showed how consumers are starting to use AI to make decisions. A few broke down how AI decides what brands get surfaced. And then there were the posts talking about what happens when AI starts to act on our behalf.

That’s not coincidence. That’s a signal.

Most of the conversation today is framed around tools. Which one is better, which one will win, and what we should all be using next year. Google versus Gemini. ChatGPT versus Claude. Canva versus whatever comes next.

It’s an easy conversation to have because it’s tangible. But it’s also the wrong one.

Tools don’t change markets. Behavior does.

For the last twenty years, retail has been built around search behavior. Customers would look, compare, filter, and eventually decide. That created an entire system designed around being discoverable at the right moment.

What’s changing now is not just the technology, but the behavior underneath it.

1 in 4 Canadian shoppers are already using AI to help make purchase decisions.

And this isn’t occasional or experimental use. 40% of those shoppers are using AI for all or most of their purchases.

That tells us something important. Customers are no longer just searching for options. They’re asking for direction. And more importantly, they’re increasingly comfortable accepting the answers they’re given.

One of the more subtle shifts happening right now is around how choices are being formed. In a search-driven world, the customer built their own consideration set. They clicked, compared, opened tabs, and worked their way toward a decision.

AI changes that dynamic completely.

Instead of ten blue links, you get a handful of answers. Sometimes just one. That means the consideration set is no longer something the customer builds. It’s something that gets built for them before they ever engage.

That is a fundamental shift in how decisions happen.

Another one of the posts broke down how AI decides what to recommend, and it comes down to three simple things: relevance, authority, and extractability.

That combination is quietly becoming the new shelf.

Not a physical shelf in a store. Not even a digital shelf on a website. It’s a decision layer that sits between the customer and the brand. If you are not visible within that layer, you are not part of the decision.

This is where visibility is being won and lost.

What makes this even more important is where things are heading next. Right now, AI helps customers decide. But we are quickly moving toward a world where AI helps customers act.

Planning, comparing, selecting, and even completing purchases can all happen within the same flow.

The data already points in that direction. 72% of shoppers say they are likely to use AI regularly for research and discovery in the future.

When that happens, the traditional funnel doesn’t just change. It compresses. Discovery, consideration, and conversion begin to blend into a single moment.

Retail isn’t losing relevance, but it is losing control of the first moment.

The shelf still matters. The store still matters. The experience still matters. But the decision is increasingly happening before any of those show up in the journey.

That’s the shift most people are missing while they debate which tools to use.

Search was about being found.

AI is about being chosen.

Those are two very different games, and they require a very different way of thinking about visibility.

I’ve been spending a lot of time digging into this shift, not from a tools perspective, but from a customer behavior perspective.

Because this isn’t really about AI. It’s about a new moment in the journey. One where discovery is no longer driven by search or shelf, but by systems that guide, filter, and ultimately shape decisions.

I call it the AI Moment of Discovery.

I’ll be sharing more on this at eTail, including a deeper look at the data, the implications for retail, and what this means for how brands need to show up going forward. We’re also launching a full whitepaper and a new site built around this idea.

More to come soon.

Here are the posts I was referencing.