Earlier this month James and I travelled to Amsterdam for the acclaimed (or at least consistently talked about) NXT Summit, and it genuinely felt worth stepping away from the desk for a couple of days. There is something grounding about hearing from people who are actually building, scaling and wrestling with the realities of modern commerce, and it gave us the headspace to think more deeply about the future of digital commerce, and what that means for the brands and clients that we work with.
NXT has a reputation for being practical, candid and less self-congratulatory than a lot of other events, and this year it delivered exactly that: real conversations, real examples and a very real sense of how fast things are shifting under our feet.
We heard everything from AI-driven shopping to grassroots brand building, to cross-border scaling headaches and the newfound importance of content operations. What follows is a summary of the themes that resonated most strongly, along with how these trends play out in the wider market and what they might mean for teams like ours and the brands we support.
AI and the Changing Rhythm of Modern Shopping
A defining topic throughout the summit was the role of AI in reshaping shopping behaviour. There was broad agreement that the pace of change is much faster than many organisations are prepared for, and that AI in its many forms is now deeply influencing the path to purchase. Speakers shared examples of brands experimenting with an integrated “AI button” that customers can tap to get sizing help, delivery advice or personalised product recommendations in real time. These tools are not about replacing human input but about making the customer journey smoother and more intuitive.
Internal AI use came up repeatedly too. From tagging to segmentation to categorisation, retailers are now leaning on AI to remove manual drag and free teams to focus on strategic or creative work. There was some concern that AI risks making brands sound generic, but most speakers took the view that the real magic happens when AI amplifies human creativity rather than diluting it.
This is backed by emerging market research. McKinsey has forecast that agentic commerce, where AI agents research, compare and even execute purchases on behalf of consumers, could unlock between three and five trillion dollars by 2030.
Salesforce has also revealed that the first half of 2025 saw a 128 percent monthly increase in retailer interactions with AI-powered tools and assistants, which shows just how quickly adoption is steepening.
Benchmarking and Market View
Across commerce, AI is no longer a novelty. It has moved decisively from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for customer experience, marketing automation, smarter search and genuinely personalised journeys. This shift is becoming particularly visible in areas such as conversational search, where brands that optimise their content for LLM visibility and agent-friendly discovery are already gaining a clear first-mover advantage.
At the same time, many organisations still feel uncertain about how to apply AI in ways that are sensible, safe and true to their brand. Guarding tone, protecting authenticity and avoiding generic outputs remain real concerns. The companies making the most meaningful progress are those approaching AI with intention and healthy scepticism, using it to enhance the human experience rather than replace it.
Brand, Community and Experience Taking Priority Over Technology Alone
Another strong theme was the renewed importance of brand and community, which many speakers argued is becoming more meaningful than the underlying tech itself. We heard examples of brands such as OBEY, and Corteiz leading with culture, opinion and community rather than product or platform. The story of Corteiz swapping old jackets for new ones and then donating the originals to the homeless was mentioned multiple times because it demonstrated how powerful simple, values-driven ideas can be when shared by a connected community.
There was also a strong prediction that 2026 will be a reset year for many businesses. Rather than endlessly adding new systems and tools, brands will start simplifying their tech stacks, making more strategic use of the data they already have and reconnecting with the heart of their brand. Loyalty programmes, limited editions, community-specific drops, user testing and real customer conversations were highlighted as core ingredients of brand-first growth. TikTok Live and TikTok Shop were also described as significant touchpoints, especially for younger demographics.
This shift aligns with broader industry moves. Technology is becoming more standardised and easier to implement, so the strongest differentiator is now the expression of brand identity and the sense of community that surrounds it. Social commerce continues to grow, and live and creator-led channels are shifting from experimental to essential.
Cross-Border Growth, Marketplaces and the Realities of Scaling
The final theme that really stood out focused on the operational complexity of scaling in a cross-border world. The session titled “From Drop to Doorstep” offered a frank look at the friction brands face when expanding into multiple countries. De minimis duty thresholds, import transparency and customer communication came up frequently, with several brands choosing to shift towards B2B2C models as a workaround for tax or logistics barriers.
One of the most discussed examples was a marketplace migration to Shopify involving a catalogue of over two hundred thousand products, combined with Algolia for search and scale. It sparked a healthy debate about whether Shopify can truly support enterprise complexity. The conclusion from the speakers who lived through it was that Shopify absolutely can do it, but only when the implementation team is experienced, aligned and realistic about standards and governance.
Shopify’s own October 2025 analysis supports this, outlining how B2B commerce, global expansion and data-centred experience design have become major growth drivers for enterprise-level brands.
The discussion then shifted to content operations, with many brands now experimenting with more structured content systems to ensure consistency across channels. The message was encouraging but cautious. These systems can deliver enormous value, but some tools still feel early and risk flattening brand tone unless teams handle them carefully.
All of this reinforces a broader market pattern where businesses move away from costly, monolithic platforms in favour of lighter, modular stacks that scale with them. The complexity of multi-market operations, marketplaces and hybrid business models is increasing, and the more unified and rationalised the stack, the easier it becomes to scale effectively.
Closing Thoughts
What struck us most about the NXT Summit was how grounded the conversations were. The genuine future of digital commerce is not going to be defined by technology alone, nor by brand creativity on its own. It will be shaped in the space where the two meet. It will be built by teams that use technology to enable better ideas, not replace them, and by brands that understand why people connect with them in the first place.
For teams like ours, and for the businesses we support, the opportunity now is to decide where to lean into this shift. Combining thoughtful technology choices with strong brand identity and efficient operational systems will put any organisation in a far better position to navigate the next wave of change with clarity and confidence.
Simply Commerce is a specialist in technology recruitment and consulting across commerce, digital and data. If you’re scaling your tech team and need deeper insight or access to talent, we can help.
