From AI Agents to Authentic Experiences: Key Learnings from Candid Commerce Amsterdam 2025

Last week we were back in Amsterdam for Candid Commerce, and saw some of the industry's most forward-thinking leaders join the stage and the audience to discuss the future of Retail. 

With panels focusing on everything from how brands can influence both human and AI decisions, to how brand and retailer collaboration is closing the loop for common growth. The conversations were candid, the insights were practical, and the focus was clear: how leaders can win in a market being reshaped at speed.

Only those who were in attendance will know the full extent of every panel, strategy and discussion. But what about the wider trends that were discussed on the day? Here are our top takeaways that shaped the conversation at Candid Commerce Amsterdam 2025: 

From Funnel Thinking to Superhighways: AI Agents are reshaping how people buy

Across every panel, there was clear agreement: the traditional marketing funnel no longer reflects how people shop. With AI-agent and LLM usage exploding, ChatGPT alone now sees over 800 million weekly users and 2.5 billion queries a day. The funnel stages we are all used to (awareness, consideration, conversion) are compressing into a single prompt, or as Brett Banner (SVP Strategy, Wayvia) put it “AI doesn’t just shrink the funnel…it builds a superhighway through it.”

Already, around 2% of all ChatGPT interactions, roughly 50 million queries every day, relate to purchasing decisions, even before full commerce infrastructure is live. The launch of OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) in late 2025, and the first Shopify-enabled buy buttons, signal that transactional capability inside agent environments is arriving fast.

Brands now face a new reality: influencing human decisions while also optimising for the AI intermediaries increasingly acting as shoppers’ proxies. Treating agents as both audience and channel is becoming essential, and leading companies are already building AISO (AI Search Optimisation) practices to ensure visibility in these new recommendation layers, without sacrificing the authenticity that drives emotional connection.

Though still nascent, agentic shopping behaviour is accelerating, especially among younger cohorts. The brands experimenting now, measuring share of recommendation and preparing for compressed discovery-to-purchase journeys, will be best placed to win in.

In the age of AI, physical experiences are striking back

While AI is reshaping digital discovery, physical retail is experiencing its own renaissance. Post-Covid shoppers, especially younger ones, now view in-person experiences as social and communal in nature, not purely transactional. As a result, stores are evolving from points of sale into spaces built for genuine human connection.

This shift is driven by a desire for seamless shopping. Omnichannel success now depends on how effectively brands coordinate data across every physical and digital touchpoint, not on pitting channels against each other. Digital tools like loyalty apps now enhance in-person engagement, while first-party data helps brands build richer, more consistent stories than any single channel can deliver alone. Even as AI takes a larger share of discovery, our panellists agreed that it will never replace human connection. Brands that recognise this are the ones poised to win in omnichannel. 

Forget media budgets, the power is in the data you own

First-party data may be the backbone of seamless omnichannel experiences, but it is also creating new challenges for brands and retailers. With privacy rules tightening, third-party signals disappearing, and shoppers becoming more protective, having a strong first-party measurement system across the business is paramount. Brands and retailers still operating in silos are falling behind, while those unifying data across media, shelf, and sales are already outperforming.

Our panellists highlighted how strongly this pressure is being felt in retail media, where the push to integrate data sources is exposing weaknesses in many first-party data frameworks. Clean rooms can offer partial solutions but often suffer from low match rates. The organisations winning today are those with aligned measurement systems and clear expectations of transparency from their partners. The best retail media teams are evolving their KPIs beyond siloed media metrics toward business outcomes, allowing them to see the true impact of their media spend and optimise it for the metrics that matter most.

A new frontier is also emerging. As agentic commerce takes shape, it will create an entirely new layer of data, including interactions, intent signals, and transaction pathways that sit inside LLM ecosystems. The big question is who will own that data. The LLM platforms themselves are sitting on a potential goldmine, but it could also open opportunities for brands to understand audiences in completely new ways. As checkout and identity shift upstream into agent environments, payment providers and retailers will need to rethink how they capture and activate these new data flows to stay competitive.

Culture over code, transformation starts with people not tools.

One theme came through clearly: technology is evolving faster than company culture. As AI automates execution, organisations are redefining what senior and strategic work really means in day-to-day operations. Companies that empower strategic thinkers and foster a culture of experimentation are already outperforming those held back by legacy habits.

The idea of ownership is shifting too, with traditional senior channels like TV no longer outweighing PDPs and the store shelf in importance. With AI-native junior talent making waves, the challenge for senior leadership is breaking down silos and encouraging real cross-functional collaboration. AI delivers the most value when it accelerates the strengths teams already have, so companies need a culture ready to support that. Prioritising the “boring jobs” like data hygiene and PDP maintenance, investing in AI literacy at all levels, and rewarding experimentation and agility are the hallmarks of a company ready to win in the AI era.

These are just some of the incredible insights shared by our panelists and attendees at this year's Candid Commerce Amsterdam. With its focus on candid conversations, the full picture only comes from being in the room!

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