Generative AI is already reshaping how people discover, research and buy

Generative AI is already reshaping how people discover, research and buy.

At The Marketing Society’s Navigate Now and Next event, Steve Ricketts (Chief Commerce Officer, Publicis Media) and Prasanna Kumar joined Sophie Devonshire to explore what this means in practice.

The shift is clear. The traditional path to purchase is being rewritten, with AI assistants and agents influencing decisions earlier, often before brands reach their own channels.

Drawing on learnings from Publicis Commerce’s How Shoppers Shop research, the discussion explored how these new behaviours are already changing the moments where influence happens, and what brands need to do to stay visible within increasingly AI-shaped journeys.

As AI becomes the interface, it is forcing a rethink of how brands show up, how media is planned, and how commerce experiences are built.