Introduction: The Funnel is Broken. AI Is Rebuilding It.

Retail marketers have clung to the same funnel for decades: Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Conversion → Loyalty. Clean, linear, logical.

The problem? Real life doesn’t work like that anymore.

In 2025, discovery happens in the swipe of a lock screen. Consideration is shaped by what your AI assistant knows about your mood. Loyalty isn’t earned through points, but through intuitive, personalized moments that feel almost psychic.

This is the AI shopping revolution—and it’s not just changing how people buy. It’s reshaping the entire retail journey from the inside out.

At the core of this shift is a new class of shopping technology: real-time, context-aware, mobile-first, and designed to meet consumers long before the funnel even starts. Platforms like Glance are leading this transformation—turning static commerce paths into dynamic, intent-aware experiences that reflect the way people actually shop now.

Top of Funnel: AI Flips Discovery from Search to Serendipity

Traditionally, top-of-funnel (TOFU) traffic was driven by broad awareness campaigns, banner ads, influencer buzz, or paid search. But these rely on consumers actively looking for something.

AI changes that.

AI-powered retail is flipping the model—from search to serendipity. Instead of users typing into a box, their intent is inferred—through behavioral cues, device patterns, and even aesthetic preferences.

Glance, for instance, doesn't wait for users to open a shopping app. Its AI system picks up on real-time context—scrolling speed, time of day, visual linger rate—and introduces products that feel natural, not intrusive. A new jacket appears not because you searched for one, but because the system noticed the season shift and your recent interaction with similar tones.

This is AI-driven retail at its purest form: ambient, predictive, and deeply personalized. The funnel doesn’t begin with awareness. It begins with relevance.

Middle of Funnel: From Consideration to Confirmation in One Tap

The middle of the funnel used to be slow, linear, and research-heavy. Comparison sites, price tracking tools, and endless wishlist saves. In the AI commerce evolution, this middle ground is collapsing—and speeding up.

AI personal shoppers, like those powering Glance, narrow the decision window by presenting curated product sets, complete lookbooks, and side-by-side brand suggestions—all tailored to individual style, budget, and behavior.

More than just streamlining, AI reduces cognitive friction. Instead of 30 browser tabs, users interact with a feed that’s already done the filtering, price-matching, and inventory validation. One look, one swipe, one click—it’s already aligned with your intent.

Where legacy commerce relied on depth, AI shopping relies on precision. And with the Glance ecosystem soon moving beyond the lock screen into a dedicated app, this seamless, real-time decision support will become even more powerful, especially for mobile-native shoppers who crave fast, guided discovery.

Bottom of Funnel: Conversions Don’t Require Carts Anymore

Cart abandonment is one of the oldest and most stubborn problems in e-commerce. But what if the cart itself is the friction?

AI is turning conversation into an ambient interaction. Glance’s AI doesn’t just recommend products. It aligns size, availability, deal alerts, and previous interaction history to present ready-to-buy bundles, price-aware nudges, and even time-sensitive prompts based on personal shopping windows.

Think: opening your phone at lunch and seeing the skincare bundle you almost bought—now 15% off, with same-day delivery. That’s not a retargeted ad. That’s a contextual AI-generated buying moment triggered by intent, not pushiness.

This kind of bottom-funnel acceleration doesn’t come from hard selling. It comes from timing. AI isn’t selling to everyone—it’s closing at the right moment for the right person.

For Glance, this is baked into the DNA. The system doesn’t wait for shoppers to return. It surfaces conversion moments wherever users naturally engage—mobile feed, voice command, glanceable UI, or visual prompt.

Post-Purchase: Loyalty in the AI Commerce Evolution

In legacy retail, loyalty was something you signed up for. A card. A number. A discount after 10 purchases.

But in the age of AI shopping, loyalty is earned by relevance, not rewards.

Glance’s post-purchase flow uses AI to reinforce brand affinity through:

• Personalized follow-up recommendations based on usage patterns
  
  
• Value-led brand discovery linked to previous buys (e.g., sustainable add-ons, complementary products)
  
  
• Real-time feedback integration (e.g., “Was this a good fit?” → adjusts future recommendations)
  
  

More than that, the platform learns how you engage after the buy—do you revisit the product? Looking for care instructions? Recommend to friends? All of this feeds back into the AI twin that represents your preferences, helping the system improve over time.

It’s not loyalty as a program. It’s loyalty as a consequence of good AI.

Retailers in the New Funnel: From Push to Participation

Let’s not forget the brands themselves. Retailers in this new AI funnel aren’t just shouting into the void. They’re participating in a dialogue—led by data, intent, and relevance.

Retailers integrated into Glance’s ecosystem, for instance, can:

• Bid for visibility in moment-based discovery, not static ad slots
  
  
• Surface products through aesthetic alignment, not keyword stuffing
  
  
• Build presence in themed AI-generated experiences (e.g., “Smart Casual for Fall,” “Cozy Home in 3 Products,” “Last-Minute Holiday Magic”)
  
  

This isn’t just about exposure. It’s about resonance.

In the AI commerce evolution, the best retailers will be the ones that lean into what the platform already knows about the user—and use that intelligence to add value, not volume.

The Future Funnel: Responsive, Real-Time, and Remarkably Human

The traditional funnel worked when consumers were patient, predictable, and desktop-bound.

That world is gone.

Today’s shoppers are mobile-first, emotionally driven, attention-starved, and fiercely resistant to generic marketing. They want brands to get them—or get out of the way.

AI shopping solves for this not by replacing retail fundamentals, but by reordering them around behavior.

What Glance is building—a real-time, multi-surface, AI-twin-powered shopping layer—doesn’t erase the funnel. It reinvents it. For a world where buying starts with a mood, is shaped by a moment, and ends with a tap.

We’re not just watching the AI shopping revolution unfold. We’re living it—one swipe, one suggestion, one invisible funnel at a time.

Explore how Glance is reshaping the future of shopping through AI. Read about AI Shopping to see what happens when discovery, decision, and delight align.