Linda Saunders from Salesforce argued in TechFinancials this week that retailers now need to win the trust of AI agents as well as shoppers. She's right, and the numbers support her. Salesforce's latest State of Commerce report found that consumer reliance on AI assistants as the first stop for shopping tripled year on year, while traditional search traffic to brand-owned channels dropped 15%.

Google isn't the only way customers find you anymore. Here's what AI-driven search means for your store, and what you need to do about it now before your competitors do.