What happens when your website starts acting less like a catalog and more like a salesperson?
In this Mentor Table session, Molly Pittman sits down with Ankit Minocha and Ashish Khurana, co-founders of Atomz AI, to explore how AI is changing product discovery, search, and the way customers make buying decisions online.
They look at what big platforms like Amazon and Walmart are already doing well, why shoppers are becoming more comfortable asking questions instead of digging through product pages, and how ecommerce brands can bring that same kind of guided experience onto their own sites.
A big part of the conversation comes down to reducing friction. If a customer has to leave your site, open Google or ChatGPT, and go hunting for an answer, you may lose them. But if you can answer those questions in the moment, you have a better chance of keeping that customer moving toward the right product.
As Molly puts it:
"Communication is not what you say, it's what they heard."
The larger takeaway is that AI-powered shopping experiences are not just about adding a chatbot. They are about understanding customer intent, structuring product data more clearly, answering objections faster, and creating a more useful path from discovery to purchase.
Why AI search and shopping are becoming more important for ecommerce brands
How customer expectations are changing as people get used to ChatGPT-style interactions
Why every extra step in the shopping journey can create friction
How guided product discovery can help customers find the right product faster
Why answering objections directly on your site can keep shoppers from leaving for Google or ChatGPT
How Amazon and Walmart use AI to surface questions, recommendations, and product information
Why structured product data matters for AI search, filters, and AEO
How better product categorization can improve the shopping experience
Why customers may be more comfortable asking an AI assistant certain questions than a human support rep
How AI-generated prompts can reveal new information about what shoppers actually want
Why brand voice and grounded product data matter when training an AI assistant
How voice AI could become part of the ecommerce shopping experience
Atomz AI: https://www.atomz.ai/
Mentor Table: https://smartmarketer.com/mentor-table/
Smart Marketer Live 2026: https://smartmarketer.com/sml-2026/
Smart Marketer: https://smartmarketer.com/
Free Trainings & Resources: https://smartmarketer.com/free-resources/
Smart Marketer Agency: https://smartmarketeragency.com/
Omnisend: https://omnisend.com/smart
00:14 – Introduction: The invisible salesperson
00:56 – Smart Marketer Live
02:34 – Omnisend sponsor message
02:53 – AI search and shopping from the consumer side
04:02 – Introducing Ankit Minocha and Ashish Khurana
05:38 – Ankit's Uniqlo story and the value of guided shopping
07:28 – Ankit and Ashish's background and why they built Atomz AI
09:41 – Why so many ecommerce visitors leave without buying
10:50 – Reducing friction in the path to purchase
11:10 – How a digital salesperson can guide product discovery
12:22 – How Amazon understands shopper intent
13:54 – Predicting customer questions before they are asked
15:01 – Using AI to answer objections and recommend better-fit products
15:56 – Molly on how this technology has evolved over the last decade
17:24 – Why product discovery looks different across categories
20:06 – Why customers are reading less and expecting faster answers
20:56 – "Communication is not what you say, it's what they heard"
21:24 – Keeping customers from leaving your site for Google or ChatGPT
21:50 – Owning more of the customer journey on your own site
22:44 – How AI shopping assistants can handle more personal questions
24:17 – Why shoppers may prefer asking AI instead of a support rep
25:30 – Smart Marketer Live mid-roll
25:50 – How Atomz AI connects to a Shopify catalog
27:01 – Using product categories as the foundation for AI search and filters
28:03 – Why more specific product data creates better answers
29:35 – Generating and reviewing customer questions at the product level
30:10 – Why structured product data also supports AEO
31:22 – Saving structured attributes back into Shopify
32:27 – Using AI shopping experiences on landing pages and paid traffic
34:01 – Site speed, branding, and implementation questions
35:14 – The future of voice AI in ecommerce
36:49 – Keeping AI grounded in product data and brand voice
38:08 – Creating a consistent experience across the storefront
38:39 – Why this may become the way people shop in the next five years
39:56 – How LLM behavior may reshape expectations on ecommerce sites
40:39 – Using AI prompts as a new source of customer research
41:38 – The "assist" from an LLM to your website
42:47 – Structuring product data for the next generation of AI shopping
44:03 – Smart Marketer Live reminder and closing CTA
Thank you for listening to the Smart Marketer Podcast!
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