Retail UX is Stuck. Multimodal AI is the Reset Button.

E-commerce has barely changed in 25 years. It's not innovative. It's the status quo on the fast track to legacy status. Grids, filters, and static product pages designed for clicks and taps are being outpaced by how people are starting to shop today. In the future, you’ll need a UI that listens, responds, and adapts in real time. 

Gartner calls it a redesign. We call it inevitable. Welcome to multimodal agentic commerce, where language and visuals combine into one fluid shopping experience instead of the static product detail page (PDP). And where AI agents are built in, not bolted on. 

To start, watch this short demo of a next-generation UI, comparing it to what your company offers and what you use as a consumer. 

Well? Would you rather be able to shop like that everywhere? 

Two Paths to Purchase, One New Rulebook 

Today, consumers shop via websites and apps using the same tired UI. But soon, consumers will be shopping in two modes: 

1. Indirect, inside ecosystems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. 
2. Directly, through a brand’s own AI agent. 

Both matter. If you ignore one, you risk becoming invisible to half your audience. 

The shift to Agentic commerce has already begun and is changing how discovery works, replacing search boxes and filters with intent-led interaction. 

This aligns with the broader transformation of ecommerce infrastructure I recently discussed, where agent-ready websites and machine-readable commerce begin to replace manual navigation as the primary mechanism for product discovery. 

The Problem with Grids, Filters, and Funnels 

The traditional e-commerce layout was built for mouse clicks, not multimodal reasoning. It forces shoppers to translate intent into filters, categories, and attributes. This UI has barely evolved in more than two decades and doesn’t reflect how consumers search or how AI retrieves information. And to be clear, it never reflected how we’d like to search and find but consumers have been stuck within the confines of the UI of the time.  

The real world doesn’t work that way anymore. AI doesn’t work that way, and people will refuse to soon.  

Autonomous agents will evaluate structured data, extract relevance,e and deliver answers and actions with you or without you. If your UX can’t talk to them, you won’t show up. 

Multimodal: Where Conversation Meets Commerce 

This is not about slapping a chatbot onto a static product page. It’s about a new surface where written or spoken language shapes visuals and vice versa. The interaction is continuous: 

1. “Show me hiking boots under $150.” 
2. Layout updates in real time. 
3. Shopper clicks one. 
4. Agent adjusts the context.  

Ask. See. Refine. Repeat. That’s how people shop. That’s how AI agents operate. It’s the new conversion path.  

Tomorrow, customers won’t just rely on word of mouth, but word of model.  

Product Detail Pages are Dead. Meet the Intent-Driven Workspace. 

Product pages must evolve. The next-gen PDP isn’t a container; it’s an interface that: 

1. Adapts layout dynamically based on human or agent intent. 
2. Blend visual elements with conversational context. 
3. Exposes structured attributes for NLP-friendly retrieval. 
4. Highlights real-time stock, bundles, deals, comparisons, and contextual recommendations. 

Think of it as a smart API, not a fixed page. It adapts on demand, based on what the user (or their agent) actually wants. 

Real-Time UI, Powered by AI 

Multimodal agents don’t “assist.” They orchestrate. In the background, they: 

1. Rebuild comparisons on the fly. 
2. Highlight what matters and suppress the fluff. 
3. Shift layouts based on intent, e.g., from browse to buy. 

This isn’t UX polish. It’s infrastructure for how decisions get made and how customers are supported in their overall journey and decision-making process. 

NiCE Cognigy Makes It Happen 

You don’t have to rip out your entire frontend to get there. NiCE Cognigy slots into your current stack and adds what’s missing: 

1. AI agents that understand product data. 
2. Multimodal interactions across chat, voice, and embedded surfaces. 
3. MCP-ready APIs for third-party agents. 
4. One journey from discovery to support, with zero handoffs. 

We’re already powering dynamic commerce experiences. This isn’t theory. Its infrastructure is already in play. 

Are you Defining the Future or just Waiting for It? 

Once one brand nails the multimodal UX, customer expectations will shift, permanently. Don’t believe me? Who made 2-day shipping the standard? How quickly did streaming become the default? The list goes on.  

This is the reset. E-commerce is becoming intent-driven. Visual. Conversational. And agent-ready.  

NiCE Cognigy gives you the tools to build that now, before someone else becomes the default interface. 

Want to find out more? Download our latest eBook - "The End of the Digital Storefront: How Agentic AI Is Rewiring eCommerce and CX"  by clicking the CTA below!