The Stack: Agentic AI Is Transforming Marketing & Retail With Unprecedented Personalization

Autonomous artificial intelligence agents are paving the way for smarter, faster and more scalable strategies. Here’s what you need to know about the rise of agentic AI

This story is part of “The Stack,” a weekly column that takes a deep dive into the ways tech companies are shaping the future of fitness and wellness

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s here, reshaping industries, disrupting traditional workflows and transforming how businesses engage with their customers. The latest buzz in the AI arena is the emergence of agentic AI, which industry experts describe as a groundbreaking approach that brings automation, personalization and decision-making to entirely new levels.

From marketing teams to multi-channel retailers, autonomous AI agents are paving the way for smarter, faster and more scalable strategies. But what sets agentic AI apart? And what does its meteoric growth mean for brands, marketers, and consumers alike?

Personalization Beyond the Plateau

As Tejas Manohar, co-founder and co-CEO of Hightouch, puts it, many “marketers are hitting a wall” despite having access to vast datasets and sophisticated tools. The promise of personalization often falls short because the current approach relies heavily on manual execution, static rules, and pre-designed journeys. The process is clunky, resource-intensive, and, ultimately, unsustainable in a world where customer expectations are skyrocketing.

That’s where agentic AI steps in.

“At Hightouch, we’ve developed an AI Decisioning platform that gives marketers a new way to scale personalization with AI agents that learn and optimize over time,” Manohar explained. “These agents use reinforcement learning to experiment with different messages, channels, and timing, all within the strategic guardrails set by the marketing team.”

Manohar said agentic AI can shift the role of the marketer from “manual work to strategic oversight,” allowing AI agents to determine the best path for each individual customer. The results speak for themselves: Manohar said Whoop, a fitness and health wearable brand, used AI agents to achieve a 10 percent lift in conversions. The technology not only optimized their campaigns but also revealed “new insights about customer behaviors” that changed the way they approached both marketing and product design.

For marketers being asked to do more with less — whether it’s driving retention, boosting lifetime value, or personalizing across channels — agentic AI offers something transformative: scalability. Instead of chasing after diminishing outcomes with static rules, marketers can invest in systems that learn and evolve, producing compounding gains over time.

A Future-Proof Retail Revolution?

Retailers are feeling the AI wave just as powerfully. Fergal Glynn, chief marketing officer and AI security advocate at Mindgard, explains how AI-driven tools are unlocking exciting opportunities for brands striving to innovate in their customer journeys.

“Both brands and retailers are adapting to incorporate AI technology into their customer dealings and increase their sales in creative ways,” said Glynn, pointing out three major use cases: “guard AI for fraud prevention, generative AI for personalization and agentic AI for automated responses and decision-making.”

Generative AI, for example, is already enabling e-commerce platforms such as Sephora and Stitch Fix to recommend products based on previous purchases, build immersive marketing campaigns, and even allow customers to try on clothes virtually. This level of personalization excites and instills confidence in buyers, making online shopping more seamless than ever.

Agentic AI goes further by automating the “invisible” tasks that keep retail operations running smoothly — monitoring stock levels, resolving logistical issues and providing tailored offers to customers in real time. “Shoppers are provided with a more customized and adaptable experience, and the stores achieve maximum profitability,” Glynn explained. For many brands, agentic AI is quickly becoming the backbone of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Building Smarter Conversations: The Rise of AI in Conversational Commerce

Here’s where it gets interesting. Emerging technologies are also changing the way brands talk to their customers, especially across social media and messaging platforms. Henson Tsai, CEO of SleekFlow, highlights how conversational commerce — enabled by generative and agentic AI — is driving meaningful, contextual interactions with customers.

“At SleekFlow, we’re seeing companies using AI to build context-based replies across WhatsApp, Instagram, and web chat to help them connect with customers in a more meaningful way and streamline the path to purchase,” Tsai said.

The shift isn’t only about answering queries — it’s about reducing friction in the purchasing journey. Tsai explains how agentic AI now takes on tasks such as sending automated follow-ups, scheduling appointments, or even resolving customer complaints. Retailers are experimenting with AI agents that can go even further by managing full sales cycles on messaging apps, from greeting leads to closing deals.

The goal? “Always-on, intelligent storefronts that never miss an opportunity to convert,” Tsai said. Businesses that embrace these innovations stand to not only retain customers but also win over younger, tech-savvy audiences who expect seamless engagement on their favorite messaging platforms.

The Expansive Potential of Agentic AI for Businesses

For businesses of all sizes, agentic AI is unlocking operational efficiency across virtually every function — marketing, customer support, inventory, analytics and beyond.

Brian Vastola, CEO of MRB Marketing, outlines how AI innovations impact companies generating anywhere from $100,000 to $500 million in revenue. From content creation and targeted email marketing to SEO optimization and custom coding, Vastola says that AI is enabling faster, smarter decision-making at scale.

“Agentic AIs are just scratching the surface,” said Vastola, imagining a future where autonomous agents could handle coordinated tasks such as lead generation, qualification, CRM updates, and even customer calls. Vastola sees a straight-up growth trajectory, with businesses already consolidating repetitive workflows into agile systems run by intelligent AI agents. “Expensive plugins are becoming a thing of the past,” Vastola noted, adding that organizations stand to save both time and money while building customized solutions at scale.

As marketing and commerce move toward increasingly contextual and autonomous experiences, one thing is clear: agentic AI will define the next era of customer engagement and business operations.

What’s next on the horizon? Glynn, Tsai, Manohar and Vastola agree: the capabilities of agentic AI are still unfolding, but its impact on driving better customer experiences and business outcomes will only accelerate. For industries striving to keep pace in an increasingly AI-enabled world, the time to act is now.

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