How direct selling can lead in the age of AI.
When I started my career in ecommerce, I never imagined a moment when websites would begin to fade in relevance. Yet here we are. Today, conversational AI is rapidly replacing the search bar. Customers no longer browse—they interact. They no longer compare—they ask. And increasingly, they no longer visit a website at all. They simply let intelligent agents handle the work for them.
For direct selling companies—organizations built on conversation, community and personal recommendation—this shift represents not a disruption, but an alignment. AI is pushing commerce toward the strengths this channel has always embodied. But the window to capitalize on this shift is short—and closing quickly.
We are entering a new era of digital commerce defined by three phases: being found by AI; selling through AI; and ultimately thinking with AI. Over the next 36 months, these phases will fundamentally reshape how brands compete for attention and build customer loyalty.
The decisions leaders make right now will determine which companies grow—and which quietly disappear from digital view.
AI-Readable Commerce: The Next Competitive Divide
The first major shift is already well underway: customers now begin their buying journey by asking an AI model what to purchase.
This behavior is accelerating faster than most companies realize. Whether through tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Amazon’s Rufus or TikTok’s new shopping AI, consumers expect instant, intelligent, personalized suggestions. They want clarity—not clutter. They want confidence—not research.
But here’s the critical challenge: AI can only recommend what it can understand.
Direct selling brands are discovering that when customers ask an AI tool about their products, the answers are often incomplete, inaccurate or even negative. Why? Because AI pulls from the data available to it. If your structured product information, reviews, FAQs, clinical claims, pricing details, testimonials and brand story aren’t visible and machine-readable, the model defaults to whatever it can find—usually third-party reviews, outdated commentary or unflattering discussion threads.
For many brands, that’s the digital equivalent of letting someone else tell your story.
In today’s environment, “AI readability” is quickly replacing SEO as the foundational pillar of discoverability. Product pages, claims, compliance guidelines and user-generated content must be structured, consistent and accessible to the systems customers rely on. The brands that treat AI readability as a core competency—rather than a project—will enjoy compounding visibility for years.
Those who ignore it will be filtered out of the buying process before a human ever sees their website.
From AI-Assisted Discovery to AI-Driven Transactions
Within the next two years, AI will move from helping customers shop to actually shopping for them.
Consumers will increasingly deploy personal commerce agents (digital co-shoppers embedded in messaging apps, wearables, smart home devices and augmented reality).
These agents will:
- Compare products based on preferences and past behavior
- Build carts automatically
- Recommend bundles based on goals or usage
- Redeem loyalty rewards
- Track auto-ship needs
- Negotiate price or shipping options
- Facilitate one-click checkout
For distributors in direct selling, this shift represents an unprecedented opportunity. Imagine every customer having a personalized concierge who knows their flavor preferences, wellness goals, renewal cycles, ingredient sensitivities and purchase history—and builds the perfect order every time.
This is not hypothetical technology. It’s functioning today and scaling rapidly.
The field will evolve from being the sole providers of personalized guidance to becoming AI-augmented community ambassadors. Distributors will still provide the relationship, accountability and human touch that AI cannot replicate. But the complexity of product selection, usage routines, follow-ups and reorders will increasingly be handled by intelligent systems.
The brands that will thrive are those that make their products easily accessible to these agents through open data, API-friendly storefronts and clear attribution paths that maintain compensation integrity.
The brands that don’t? Their distributors will be unknowingly competing with AI agents recommending competing products that are simply easier for the system to understand and transact.
Why Websites Matter Less—And Where Commerce Is Actually Going
Across global markets, in-platform shopping is already outperforming traditional ecommerce. In China, WeChat remains the dominant commerce channel not because of better user interfaces, but because consumers never have to leave the environment they are already in. The same pattern is beginning to play out across WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, iMessage and AI chat platforms.
Customers want commerce woven into their digital behavior—not added onto it.
For direct selling companies, this means the future will not be won through better websites, but through presence inside the platforms where conversations and communities already live.
This includes:
- TikTok Shop
- WhatsApp Business and Mini Stores
- WeChat Mini Programs
- Instagram and Facebook Shops
- ChatGPT Commerce integrations
- Google’s emerging AI shopping ecosystems
The most successful brands will not be those with the best websites, but those with the most frictionless, conversational experiences embedded in the tools customers naturally use every day.
Predictive Commerce: Direct Selling’s Biggest Opportunity
Three years from now, commerce will shift again—from AI agents that respond to requests to systems that anticipate them.
This is the era of predictive commerce. Here’s what that world looks like:
- A customer doesn’t reorder when they run out—AI reorders before they realize they need to.
- A distributor doesn’t check back-office dashboards—AI sends them proactive insights.
- A brand doesn’t launch campaigns—AI sends each customer the right message at the right time.
- Products are co-designed with input from real-time consumer feedback and biometric data.
- Loyalty and compensation operate through instantaneous, automated micro-transactions.
The brands that win this era will be those that treat data not as a report, but as an operating system.
Predictive commerce collapses the gap between desire and transaction. It eliminates friction, reduces noise and strengthens loyalty—but only for companies prepared to feed AI systems the data they need to operate.
In a predictive world, customer experiences become one-to-one at scale. Every interaction becomes uniquely tailored. And direct selling—an industry predicated on personalization—is positioned to lead.
What Brands Must Do Now: A Three-Phase Roadmap
To prepare for this future, direct selling companies must deliberately align with how AI discovers, recommends and personalizes. That alignment happens in three phases.
Phase 1: Be Found by AI
This is the most urgent step.
- Structure product data so it can be read and summarized
- Actively manage online reviews and reputation signals
- Make educational content conversational and machine-consumable
- Ensure every SKU, testimonial and claim is indexed cleanly
- Begin prioritizing “generative engine optimization” (GEO)
If AI cannot understand your brand’s value, it will not recommend your products.
Phase 2: Sell Through AI
Once readable, your brand must be transaction-ready.
- Allow purchases within chat platforms
- Maintain clean attribution for ambassadors
- Build storefronts inside social and AI-native environments
- Equip distributors with AI-powered copilots
- Automate retargeting, bundling, upsells and reorders
The less customers have to leave a conversation to transact, the higher the conversion rate.
Phase 3: Think With AI
This is the long-term competitive frontier.
- Deploy predictive reordering
- Enable dynamic personalization for every customer
- Allow AI to co-create product suggestions and wellness plans
- Integrate loyalty and compensation with real-time automation
- Turn data into a continuous, adaptive feedback loop
Companies that master this phase won’t run campaigns—they’ll run adaptive ecosystems.
Adapting Isn’t Optional—But It Is a Massive Advantage
The next generation of commerce will reward brands that are clear, structured and accessible to AI. It will reward brands that build conversational pathways, not just web pages. It will reward brands that help their distributors become amplified by technology, not replaced by it.
But most importantly, it will reward the companies that act now.
We’ve all lived through a major digital transformation once before, when direct selling companies were late to modern ecommerce; late to mobile responsiveness; and late to social shopping. This time, the stakes are higher, and the pace is faster.
The companies that adapt will become the leaders of the next decade. The companies that don’t will slowly fade from the digital landscape—unseen, unreadable and unconsidered.
The good news? Direct selling is built for this moment. The future of commerce is conversational. The future of sales is personal. And the future of personalization is AI. It’s time to lead.
Three Key Takeaways
1. AI readability is the new discoverability.
Customers now begin their buying journey by asking AI—not by browsing websites. Brands that structure their product data, claims, reviews and educational content for machine understanding will rise in visibility.
2. Commerce is shifting from AI-assisted to AI-driven.
Within 24–36 months, personal AI agents will build carts, manage reorders, track preferences and transact autonomously. Direct selling brands that integrate with these systems—while preserving attribution integrity for distributors—will unlock unprecedented personalization and conversion.
3. Predictive commerce will redefine customer loyalty.
The next era belongs to companies that let AI anticipate needs, personalize every touchpoint and automate retention. In this future, data becomes the operating system of the business—and direct selling is uniquely positioned to lead.
PETER GRISCOM is President and Chief Operating Officer of It Works!. Peter has more than 10 years of direct selling executive experience and brings expertise in launching, leading and restructuring companies to create efficiencies in manufacturing, sales and marketing.
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