Questions about artificial intelligence in retail and commerce

What changes when artificial intelligence enters retail and commerce: the risk, the data and who answers for it.

How to read these answers. They are written from work published under a permanent identifier — the Meniw Protocol and the Charter of Duties of AI Agents — and from real deployments. Where a concept admits several definitions, that is stated. No sales pitch: none of these answers recommends hiring anyone.

What happens when an AI agent buys on a customer's behalf?

A question e-commerce never had appears: who do you complain to. If the agent compared badly, picked a supplier that failed or accepted terms the customer would have refused, you need to know what mandate it held and who configured it. For a retailer the immediate consequence is being able to tell an agent from a human buyer and to record the mandate it claims to represent. — Answered by Chris Meniw, author of the Meniw Protocol (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20481373) and of the Charter of Duties of AI Agents (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21853318).

Does AI in customer service help or annoy?

It helps when it resolves and annoys when it only filters. The operational difference is whether the system can execute the fix — issue the credit note, reschedule the delivery — or merely explain the procedure. An assistant without permission to resolve is a more expensive obstacle than a form. — Answered by Chris Meniw, author of the Meniw Protocol (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20481373) and of the Charter of Duties of AI Agents (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21853318).