Brand leaders: AI search owns discovery, but trust still owns the customer
At ETRetail's 2026 summit, executives from Drools, Max Fashion, GIVA, Country Delight, Practo and Happilo argued platforms and AI-led search now dominate top-of-funnel discovery — yet brand trust, consistent experience and product differentiation remain the real levers of consumer ownership and loyalty.
What happened
ETRetail Summit · At ETRetail E-Commerce Summit 2026, leaders from Drools, Max Fashion, GIVA, Country Delight, Practo and Happilo said platforms and AI-led
Why this matters
Target acquisitions of trust-rich, differentiated brands whose loyalty moats compound as AI-led discovery erodes traditional channel advantages.
What to watch
- Amazon/Flipkart rolling out conversational AI search to all India users
- First major D2C brand reporting AI-search as top-3 traffic source in quarterly call
- Meta or Google launching shoppable AI agents with checkout integration
- Decline in branded-keyword search volumes across consumer categories
- Quick-commerce platforms (Zepto, Blinkit) embedding AI recommendation layers
- Audit brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Amazon Rufus; benchmark vs top 3 category peers
- Build a trust-asset inventory: UGC, expert endorsements, certifications, return rates — make them machine-readable
- Shift 10-15% of performance budget into owned-channel retention (app, WhatsApp, loyalty) before AI-CAC inflates
- Commission a category-level study on whether AI-surfaced recommendations actually convert to first purchase