The Evolution of E-commerce: How AI is Changing Complex Sales
The deeper I dive into the AI sphere, the clearer a new problem for e-commerce becomes: AI often favors large brands, based on the data fed to it, primarily from the internet, but using completely different algorithms than Google.
If you ask Claude to find flowers in Boca Raton, it will suggest large chains like 1-800-Flowers, ignoring small companies.
This creates two important challenges and opportunities:
1. SEO must now account for AI.
Companies need to update their SEO strategies. Now you need not only to reach the top of Google, but also consider how AI assistants perceive your brand.
Here’s what’s fascinating: traditional SEO focused on keywords and backlinks. But AI systems read differently. They’re looking for context, authority signals, and structured information. A small bakery that writes detailed blog posts about bread-making techniques might actually outrank a larger competitor that just lists products, because the AI recognizes expertise and depth of knowledge.
2. Using AI in complex sales.
Even more interesting is the opportunity to apply AI in selling complex products, where you need to choose many options and details in complex configurable products.
For example, buying a home drum kit today requires:
Understanding hundreds of incompatible parts and parameters of drums and hardware
Understanding the real needs of the person who will be playing them
Not overpaying for unnecessary options
If possible, negotiating with small shops or assembling everything piece by piece on Amazon
Ensuring the kit is assembled correctly and completely
Currently, this often requires help from several people, although most of the knowledge is fairly easy to describe.
AI Solution
Imagine a smart AI assistant that could:
Learn from experts through simple instructions and interviews
Check part compatibility and suggest correct sets
Find alternatives and optimal prices
Save customers time and money
Involve humans only for final verification
This is a huge time savings and an opportunity to sell (for companies) and buy (for people) what you often postpone or where you buy a ready-made suboptimal set.
Think about it this way: right now, if you want to build a decent home gym, you either hire a personal trainer who knows equipment (expensive and time-consuming), spend weeks researching online (confusing and overwhelming), or just buy whatever looks good at Dick’s Sporting Goods (usually wrong for your space and goals).
But an AI that learned from 50 different fitness professionals could ask you the right questions in 10 minutes: How much space do you have? What are your fitness goals? Any injuries or limitations? What’s your budget? Then it could instantly cross-reference thousands of equipment combinations, check dimensions against your space, verify compatibility, and even find the best deals across multiple retailers.
The Future of Complex Sales
The main breakthrough will happen when we combine expert knowledge with AI capabilities.
This means businesses will be able to:
Reduce sales time
Offer precise and convenient solutions
Increase customer satisfaction
Reduce returns
Scale expert knowledge
The companies that get this right will have massive advantages. When buying complex products becomes as easy as buying a book on Amazon, the businesses that enable that simplicity will capture enormous value.
But here’s the thing that excites me most: this isn’t just about making sales easier. It’s about making better purchases possible.
Right now, most people settle for “good enough” when buying complex products because the research and decision-making process is too overwhelming. AI assistants could help people get exactly what they need, often at better prices, with confidence that it will actually work for their specific situation.
Start collecting the experience of your best specialists, create materials for AI training, and lay the foundation for developing smart assistants that will not only simplify customers’ lives, but also help your business open new markets.
The businesses that figure this out first won’t just win customers - they’ll create entirely new ways for people to buy things they currently avoid purchasing because it’s too complicated. And that’s a much bigger opportunity than most people realize.