The Next Five Years Will Rewrite Digital Commerce

Digital commerce is in flux. The models and platforms that powered the last two decades are creaking under the weight of new expectations, new technologies, and new buyer behavior. I’ll say it plainly: every commerce platform in the market today will feel outdated in five years. And companies that don’t start preparing now risk being left behind.

From Cost Savings to Growth

For years, commerce investments were framed around efficiency and cost savings. That’s no longer the case. CMOs now see digital commerce as the engine of top-line growth. They’re under pressure not just to cut costs, but to grow revenues in the face of dominant online giants, emerging competitors, and increasingly empowered buyers.

But here’s the problem: two-thirds of CMOs admit they can’t actually grow digital sales effectively. Why? Because the traditional tools of marketing – email blasts, sponsored ads, SEO – have lost their bite. Consumers have tuned them out.

Welcome to the Intelligence Economy

The next chapter of commerce won’t be about who spends the most on ads. It will be about who can engage with intelligence – the right message, to the right person, at the exact right moment. That’s the “intelligence economy.”

It is being powered by agentic AI and AI-centric marketing systems that move beyond mass campaigns. Think natural language instead of keywords. Think context-driven engagement instead of static landing pages.

The End of SEO as We Know It

Let’s be honest: SEO is already on borrowed time. Buyers aren’t typing “brown dress with short sleeves” into search engines anymore. They’re saying: “Show me Taylor Swift’s engagement dress.” Search is shifting from keyword to intent, and companies that don’t adapt will lose visibility altogether. My colleague already wrote about this in a previous blog post.

Bridging to the Next Generation

The good news is that businesses don’t have to tear down everything they’ve built to keep pace. At HCL Commerce, our focus is on building a bridge to the next generation of digital commerce. This means allowing companies to evolve incrementally, adding AI-first capabilities without the pain and risk of a massive replatform.

We’re also pushing beyond browser limitations. Our paradigm is simple: kill the browser. Commerce won’t always happen in a tab. It’ll happen through voice, autonomous agents, and systems that anticipate needs before customers articulate them. We’re already testing this with tools, where you can create an entire marketing campaign with your voice.

If you’re curious, I just wrote a blog about our paradigm, ‘kill the browser’.

The Workforce Challenge

All of this creates a new reality for the workforce. Routine transactions won’t require sales reps anymore — buyers prefer self-service. That doesn’t mean people disappear, but it does mean roles need to change. Reskilling will be one of the hardest challenges for companies in the next five years. The ones that adapt and embed AI into their DNA will lead. The rest will struggle to catch up.