The Future of Commerce: Why winning with AI starts with trusted data

Xiatech and Pimberly recently hosted a fantastic breakfast, The Future of Commerce: Turning Product Data into Growth with AI, Analytics & Composable Technology. The event was led by Jonathan Summerfield, CEO of Xiatech, who shared growth foundation requirements for AI success, and Craig McCalley, UK MD for Pimberly, who dove into the AI opportunity in commerce and the barriers limiting adoption today.

Together, they painted a clear picture of a market undergoing rapid transformation. Consumer expectations continue to shift quickly: half of consumers now use AI-powered search to discover products, while more than 70% identify as omnichannel shoppers who expect seamless phygital experiences. AI is also delivering significant commercial gains, with studies showing that it can lift satisfaction, grow revenue, or reduce costs by 25% or more.

Yet, despite the excitement, many organisations struggle to realise these benefits. As highlighted in the discussion, 40% of businesses say poor product data prevents them from adopting AI effectively. The opportunity is enormous but so is the gap between ambition and readiness.

The need to establish the foundation for AI success

Jonathan emphasised that successful AI adoption requires more than new tools. It requires a solid, trusted foundation of data and composable technology across the organisation. AI models can only produce meaningful recommendations, localised content, or product insights when the underlying data is complete and accurate - and unified system integration, data management and orchestration are essential to success.

Today, many organisations still operate with fragmented product data spread across ERPs, e-commerce platforms, supplier spreadsheets, DAM repositories, and legacy systems. Manual enrichment processes slow teams down, sustainability and compliance metadata is often incomplete, and digital assets are stored in disparate locations — all of which makes it difficult for AI to perform reliably. As Craig highlighted, “AI is only as good as the data behind it,” and without a unified view of product information, AI simply cannot learn or generate value.

Building this foundation requires clear strategic ambition, cross-functional alignment, integration across operational systems, strong governance, and most importantly, a modern unified data platform. This is where Xiatech’s Xfuze platform plays a critical role, integrating systems, creating single views of product data, orchestrating information across channels, and enabling near real-time insights. Once organisations establish these foundations, AI can scale from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide transformation.

AI use cases that deliver business outcomes

With a robust foundation in place, AI becomes an engine of value, and Pimberly’s platform showcases how quickly organisations can benefit especially when data is powered by Xiatech’s Xfuze platform, which creates and orchestrates a single view of data across an organisation.

Pimberly uses AI to automate and accelerate traditionally manual product data tasks. Attribute enrichment, product classification, copywriting, and translations can be generated instantly, dramatically reducing workloads and enabling teams to focus on creative and strategic responsibilities.

AI also enhances speed to market. Automated taxonomy mapping, localisation, and variation generation make it easier to launch products across regions and channels. Multi-channel publishing from a single workflow allows businesses to expand rapidly without adding operational complexity.

Search and discoverability improve as well. AI crafts structured SEO metadata, ensures attribute consistency for filtering, and tags digital assets intelligently. Customers find products faster, and experience more relevant journeys.

Finally, richer data enables genuine personalisation. Product recommendations become more accurate, on-site experiences adjust dynamically to customer profiles and locations, and content can be adapted to cultural or regional nuances. Retailers are already using geo-specific imagery to increase relevance and conversion - a strong example of AI enhancing the emotional and contextual connection between products and customers.

Final thoughts about the future

The breakfast event made one thing clear: the future of commerce will belong to organisations that establish a strong product data foundation and use AI to unlock its full potential. With Jonathan Summerfield’s strategic guidance, Craig McCalley’s insight into AI’s commercial impact, and the combined power of Xiatech’s Xfuze platform and Pimberly’s AI-enabled PIM and DAM capabilities, businesses now have a practical blueprint for transforming how they operate like never before.

With the right growth foundations in place, AI moves from promise to performance, accelerating growth, improving customer experience and enabling organisations to shape the future of commerce with confidence.