Harvard Business Review reveals the untapped power of AI in e-commerce
Filled with must-know stats, a new Harvard Business Review report discusses the reality of AI adoption challenges in e-commerce, and how it's reshaping CX.
Over the past two decades, the way people shop has changed dramatically. Online searches used to be keyword-based, with customers formulating queries that perfectly matched the items they wanted. Today, multimodal searches allow customers to express their needs through text, image, audio, video, gestures, and 3D models, ranging from lengthy sentences to blurry, context-free images.
With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, the search process is faster, more interactive, highly personalized, and more aligned with how humans naturally seek and process information.
E-commerce is transitioning to multifaceted search for two central reasons—the existence of real, documented use cases and advancements in search technology. The online shopping experience is changing fast as customers expect their unique expressions of intent to be understood and fulfilled faster than ever.
Multimodalities: A product, tech, and mind shift
Voice-to-text searches via iPhone’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa make e-commerce transactions available on the go. Voice tools now include more conversational use cases, for example, asking for suggestions for specific products, such as: “What gift should I buy for a five-year-old boy?” Industries are at the point where customers can ask e-commerce sites to offer suggestions with simple queries.
There’s also a surge of image searches, including typing in or asking to search for something as generic as a “farmhouse sofa” using tools such as Amazon Rufus, Google Lens, or Pinterest’s new Lens feature.
At the 2025 National Retail Federation’s Big Show 2025 in February, Worldwide Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington said Rufus (launched in February 2024) can now answer up to half a million questions that Amazon couldn’t answer with its prior search box. Herrington said it can respond to generic questions like “Can I use this fishing reel in saltwater?”
A Invesp study showed that more than 36% of consumers use visual searches when shopping online, and 50% said visual searches are more important than text shopping while online.
Augmented reality and virtual reality take that experience one step further, allowing customers to also use their phones to try on glasses and see how specific products look in their homes. A Statista report noted that by 2029, the number of users in the AR and VR market worldwide is expected to reach 3.7 billion, and user penetration is projected to be 56% by 2029.
Customers embrace these new technologies and multifaceted search because they let them easily describe and quickly locate exactly what they want. The convenience factor is high, resulting in less friction for happier customers and better sales.
The specificity provided by these multimodalities allows companies to pose and solve essential questions, including what customers want and which problems the business can solve for them. This increased functionality is why more customers are shopping at companies’ sites, staying longer online, and ultimately buying more.
Best practices for multifaceted search
According to a 2022 McKinsey Report, 64% of customers are more likely to purchase products from an e-commerce brand they’ve already shopped with. Additionally, 35% are more likely to buy from a brand they’ve shopped at before.
That’s why brands should focus on customer retention and growth while also programming their searches to ensure the results are relevant to customer requests and based on their history and personal profiles. For example, a New York customer may make different choices from a customer in San Francisco, based on factors ranging from weather to lifestyles or even dietary preferences.
Providing suggestions to customers based on their past engagement, shopping behavior, age, sex, locality, and even the time they log onto the site is vital. The more information available, the greater the opportunity to tailor customer preferences, which will result in increased sales.
These advances require companies to strategically plan how they set up their systems. Multifaceted systems require multiple interfaces that must perform smoothly and efficiently. With so many entry points, organizations should consider the scope of their financial investment—from hiring top-notch designers and engineers to ensuring security, compliance, and data and customer privacy.
Fast-tracking the future
The driving force behind the rapid rise of multifaceted search is the ongoing desire and need to acquire more customers, particularly Gen Z, who want a faster, more personalized online experience.
The TikTok generation understands the benefits of new technologies, such as VR, AR, generative AI, and machine learning, and they want to be able to instantaneously click, see, and purchase the latest product trending on social media.
Companies willing and able to embrace these technologies will be primed to take advantage of a customer base that’s isn’t inclined to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, yet seeks that same personalized experience through their screens.
