Is the retail industry ready for the booming “chat” economy?

Don’t search, just ask. That’s shorthand for a profound change that is quietly but quickly forcing retailers to rethink how they market, how they structure their websites, and how to deal with the inevitable sunset of traditional search advertising.
According to reports on industry news sites, there appear to be a lot of retailers who are just now scrambling to catch up. The cost to retool websites to synch with AI is enormous. There may be a number of retailers, especially those who sell direct-to-consumers, who do not survive the transition. And it’s coming faster than most realize.