Maeng Ji-seon, enterprise senior business development lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), said, "We must understand the essence of retail and consumer-goods corporations and apply Agentic AI to maximize competitiveness."
On the 16th, Maeng said this in a keynote address at the 14th Consumer and Retail Forum hosted by ChosunBiz at the Westin Josun Seoul in Jung-gu, Seoul. The forum was held under the theme, "AI era: How are choices made?"
Giving a lecture on the theme "AX strategy insights for the retail and consumer-goods industry," Maeng said, "What people do is shifting to review, and we are entering a stage where AI is gradually entrusted with more tasks, segmenting and automating work," and emphasized, "Retail and consumer-goods corporations should hurry to adopt Agentic AI."
Agentic AI goes beyond Generative AI that simply answers questions to identify customer intent and carry out real actions such as product discovery, comparison, recommendation and purchase. Maeng interpreted the competitive landscape of online retail as shifting from corporations competing to catch consumers' eyes to corporations understanding consumers' purchase intent. "An era has come in which AI acts on behalf of customers," Maeng said, explaining that "Agentic AI is affecting both sales 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 conversion rate was more than 3.5 times higher.
Product Q&A is changing, too. For example, when comparing espresso machines, instead of simply listing prices or specs, it should analyze features by function—such as grinder, temperature and pressure—in context and even present follow-up questions that guide purchase decisions. Maeng said, "AI needs to understand natural language and also respond in a customer-personalized way," adding, "Agentic AI will handle responses by remembering past context."
A brand's voice can also be personalized. "One of the things being tested on Amazon.com is reflecting that some products are bought more by homemakers and others by Gen Z," Maeng said. "When possible, using a Gen Z voice in responses creates familiarity and drives purchases. We are also studying tailoring the brand voice to the customer profile," Maeng said.
Maeng said, "A corporation can start by building a single agent and then gradually expand its scope to take on multiple tasks." A case was also introduced in which PepsiCo aims to become an "Agentic AI-first enterprise" by embedding AI across its business beyond being a simple food-and-beverage corporation. The key is for every employee to build AI fundamentals and combine AI with their primary responsibilities.
Maeng said, "As you become an AI corporation, you need to develop employees' capabilities," adding, "If someone handles the supply chain, combining AI with their primary responsibilities is like combining AI with their major." Maeng continued, "As the intention economy is coming, you must quickly detect and respond to consumer intent," and said, "Domestic corporations should pursue being AI-native and teach employees."