New Gen AI Storefronts Help Brands Adapt to AI-Driven Shopping
New Gen, a San Francisco-based startup, is creating AI storefronts to help brands interact with AI chatbots and agents, enabling personalized shopping experiences and real-time market adjustments.
San Francisco-based startup New Generation (New Gen) is pioneering AI storefronts to help brands adapt to the rising trend of AI-driven shopping. Founded by Harvard Business School alumni Jonathan Arena and Adam Behrens, the company aims to bridge the gap between traditional eCommerce and the emerging agentic economy.
Key Features of New Gen’s AI Storefronts
- Dynamic Interaction: AI storefronts enable real-time, personalized interactions with AI chatbots like ChatGPT, offering tailored product recommendations and seamless checkout experiences.
- Automated Product Tagging: Brands can automate product tagging, eliminating manual updates for trends like celebrity endorsements or market shifts.
- AI Subdomains: New Gen creates dedicated subdomains (e.g.,
ai.brand.com) to handle AI-driven traffic without disrupting existing websites. - Partnerships: The startup has partnered with Visa and is piloting with major retail, fashion, and travel brands.
The Vision Behind AI Storefronts
Behrens, a former Stripe employee, emphasized the need for a new commerce layer tailored to AI: "Every technology wave requires new infrastructure. With AI, brands need dynamic storefronts that can ‘talk’ to AI agents." Arena added that this innovation could create a "bespoke internet for every person."
Challenges and Opportunities
While fully autonomous AI agents are still in development, New Gen’s technology addresses critical pain points:
- Outdated Product Management: Manual tagging is replaced with AI-driven automation.
- Conversational Search: Moves beyond keyword-based searches to natural language queries.
How It Works
New Gen’s system:
- Reindexes product catalogs.
- Combines structured and unstructured data (e.g., social media posts).
- Uses AI models (Gemini 2.5 for images, Claude 4 for text, OpenAI for code) to generate dynamic storefronts.
Industry Impact
Payment giants like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are already developing agentic commerce infrastructure. New Gen’s storefronts complement these efforts by ensuring brands remain visible in an AI-first shopping landscape.
For more details, read PYMNTS’ exclusive report on Agentic AI.
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About the Author
Alex Thompson
AI Technology Editor
Senior technology editor specializing in AI and machine learning content creation for 8 years. Former technical editor at AI Magazine, now provides technical documentation and content strategy services for multiple AI companies. Excels at transforming complex AI technical concepts into accessible content.