Maeng Ji-seon, enterprise senior business development lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), said, "While understanding the essence of consumer and retail corporations, we need to apply agentic AI to maximize competitiveness."
On the 16th, Maeng said this during a keynote at the 14th Consumer and Retail Forum hosted by ChosunBiz at the Westin Josun hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. The forum was held under the theme, "In the AI era, how are choices made?"
Delivering a talk on "AX strategy insights for the retail consumer goods industry," Maeng said, "Human work is shifting to review tasks, and we are entering a phase where we delegate a bit more to AI, segmenting and automating work," adding, "Consumer and retail corporations should hurry to adopt agentic AI."
Agentic AI goes beyond Generative AI that simply answers questions to understand customer intent and carry out real actions such as product discovery, comparison, recommendation, and purchase. Maeng interpreted the competitive landscape in online retail as shifting from corporations competing to catch consumers' attention to corporations understanding consumers' purchase intent. Maeng said, "The era has come when AI acts on behalf of customers," adding, "Agentic AI is affecting both revenue growth and operational efficiency."
Sensor Tower Research analyzed more than 100,000 data points from Amazon shopping sessions on last year's Black Friday and found that 40% of all customers asked questions through an AI agent, and their purchase rate was more than 3.5 times higher.
Product Q&A is changing, too. For example, when comparing espresso machines, instead of merely listing prices or specs, it should analyze features by function—such as grinder, temperature, and pressure—in context and present follow-up questions that guide purchase decisions. Maeng said, "AI needs to understand natural language and provide customer-specific responses," adding, "Agentic AI will step in to respond by remembering past context."
A brand's voice can also be personalized. Maeng said, "One of the things being tested on Amazon.com reflects that some products are purchased mostly by homemakers and others mostly by Gen Z," adding, "When possible, using a Gen Z voice in responses builds familiarity and drives purchases. We are also researching tailoring the brand voice to customer profiles."
Maeng said, "Corporations can start by building a single agent and then gradually broaden its scope to handle multiple tasks." Maeng also introduced PepsiCo as an example aiming for an "agentic AI-first enterprise" that embeds AI across the business beyond being a simple food and beverage corporation. The key is for all employees to build AI fundamentals and combine AI with their primary roles.
Maeng said, "As you become an AI corporation, you need to develop employees' capabilities accordingly," adding, "If you handle the supply chain, combining AI with your primary role is the same as combining AI with your major." Maeng continued, "As the intention economy arrives, corporations must quickly discern and respond to consumer intent," adding, "Domestic corporations should pursue being AI-native and teach it to their employees."