AI platforms are racing to add commerce. Everyone's opening doors to external integrations.
Lovable launched an AI-powered Shopify store building on October 20th. Describe what you want, and it builds your storefront in minutes, complete with checkout and product pages
Shopify partnered with ChatGPT on September 29, and millions of merchants can now sell directly inside ChatGPT conversations with Instant Checkout, no links or redirects
Walmart partnered with ChatGPT on October 14. Customers link their accounts and complete purchases without leaving the chatbot
Etsy integrated with ChatGPT, and over a million products are now purchasable through chat.
AI platforms are becoming shopping channels. Commerce is happening wherever conversations happen.
Amazon is doing the opposite.
They launched Rufus in January 2024, an in-app AI assistant trained on their own product catalog, reviews, and Q&As. In September 2025, they upgraded Seller Assistant with agentic AI that monitors inventory, flags storage fees, and recommends shipment plans. All internal. All walled. Zero external AI partnerships.
Here's what we think, and where we might be wrong:
Amazon doesn't need external AI because it already owns the entire purchase funnel. They control search behavior, purchase history, and product data. Rufus leverages that moat.
Shopify and Walmart need OpenAI because they don't control where discovery starts. So they're building on-ramps wherever customers are. OpenAI has 800M users.
Amazon might open Rufus APIs in 2026. They could partner with external platforms. They've surprised us before. Only time will tell, as they did a partnership with TikTok, so anything is possible.
What sellers can track:
AI discovery is fragmenting. Build a catalog infrastructure that performs in conversational search. Monitor traffic patterns and adjust as the landscape shifts.
These are exciting times, but if someone does not adapt to these changing landscapes, then one can lose the e-commerce competition.
