"Chief marketing officers come in three new-and-improved flavors, exclusive Harvard research shows -- As large corporations redouble their efforts to find more profitable paths to growth, they�re looking for strategic and operational leadership from the marketing organization more than ever before. The result is the increasing prominence of a senior executive whose title didn�t even exist 10 years ago: the chief marketing officer, or CMO."
For decades, the story of digital commerce has been one of incremental improvement: better search, faster checkout, smarter recommendations. But something more fundamental is now underway. The emergence of agentic commerce, in which AI agents autonomously search, evaluate, and execute purchases on behalf of buyers, represents a genuine architectural shift in how commerce operates. Whether it becomes the revolution its proponents promise, or another technology that peaks at interesting pilot project, will depend on how effectively the AI industry addresses the structural challenges it faces. Agentic Commerce Market Development Agentic commerce involves deploying AI agents to handle the full purchasing cycle. Rather than browsing a website and entering card details yourself, you grant an AI agent the authority to act on your behalf, within defined parameters. The agent handles product discovery, comparison, negotiation, and payment execution. It draws on your procurement preferences, pur...