After the AI hype wave, the real work begins: show up as human, deliver fast, and personalize with intent.
In episode 12 of Coffee with Ecommerce, Damian Lewandowicz and Matt Wis connect Ogilvy's authenticity warnings with commerce platform shifts, Amazon's logistics dominance, and the signals hiding in your customer data.
Ogilvy calls it bluntly: "As AI floods feeds with perfection, consumer trust is eroding."
Their 2026 report shows 44% of shoppers-Gen Z through Boomers-oppose AI in advertising. They don't trust it. They scroll past it. And if they catch even a hint of "lousy AI deepfake," as Damian puts it, they won't even get to the point where they could trust your product or brand.
"It's another bottleneck that brands actually makes their marketing even harder," Damian notes. "So yeah, keep your marketing authentic all the time."
Meta felt it too. Their new Andromeda algorithm update came because brands were spinning out 700 to 1,000 ad variations with AI. The system couldn't figure out who to serve what. AI fatigued itself.
The antidote?
Demonstrate your product with real humans in organic ways. Matt shares a standout example: an iPhone cleanup app that printed phone screens on paper, stuck them on a wall, and had a real person walk through the before-and-after—no screen recording, no AI voiceover, just clever demonstration.
"Demonstration is a great way to do it," Matt says. "Make sure that it's clear for everyone who watches the ad. Hey, this is cool. This might work."
Ogilvy's webinar distills it to three moves:
Authenticity, substance, authority, resonance-these ideas have been around since the start of real marketing. They're still number one priority.
Commerce Tools launched AgenticLift, a standalone agentic commerce product that works without replacing your current platform.
"It enables AI agents to access product data and transaction logic without replacing current systems," according to the announcement covered by Digital Commerce 360.
Why it matters:
Since October 2025, the agentic commerce conversation centered on choosing the right platform. Shopify tried to own the narrative.
Now, tools are evolving that let you stay on your current stack. No migration. No ecosystem overhaul. Just plug in the right AI tools.
"It's a big deal," Damian says. "I would actually be happy to see some kind of competition between the different agentic ecommerce tools to see how they will compete in terms of authenticity, for example, to show which one will be more accurate in terms of data."
Matt adds a related win from AI voice agents: platforms now train agents 24/7 by having challenging "customer" agents call in and create tricky scenarios. The result? Natural conversations that provide care, not robotic menu trees.
"I believe that businesses will win if they start treating AI as a leverage, not as a replacement" Damian concludes.
Amazon reported a 44% increase in same-day and next-day Prime deliveries compared to the previous year-13 billion orders globally at that speed.
Not total orders. Just same and next day.
"Delivery and logistics is probably top three potential business advantage for your store" Damian says. "It's very important to have very transparent rules of delivery and as best as possible."
Even if a customer trusts your brand, "if they will have better delivery methods or rules they will eventually win."
You can't out-Bezos Bezos. But you can compete on transparency and communication.
Matt's playbook:
"Make it extremely simple for your customers to find out what is happening with their order the moment they place it," Matt adds.
Transparency goes all the way. If you have it, that's maybe probably half of success.
Shopify's guide on intent-based marketing isn't new theory - it's a reminder that not all traffic is equal.
"Intent-based marketing is about distinguishing between prospective customers just browsing and those ready to make a purchase," Damian explains. "Someone searching for a specific product or returning to the same product page multiple times has a much higher purchase intent than someone doing general category research."
The unlock: segment by behavior signals, not demographics.
Signals to track:
Matt's favorite exercise: map your customer journey from day 0 to day 365.
"You'll see that there is time - except them receiving your newsletters - that maybe you don't send any personalized message from day 40 until day 240. So there's a 200-day gap."
Fill it with intent-triggered emails, direct mail with special offers, or retargeting ads.
"Deeply understanding your customer's intent is a difficult thing to do. It's really hard, but this shouldn't stop you from trying," Damian says. "Don't ever stop looking for new signals and to understand better the signals and data you already have."
Matt ran out of coffee halfway through episode 12. Damian wrapped his afternoon.
Both left with the same line: "Go and sell."
