AI is changing how customers discover and evaluate products, but its impact on ecommerce goes beyond a new source of website traffic. It's also challenging how brands think about product information, onsite search, personalisation, and content production.
In the second episode of Domaine Masterclass, AI That Drives Revenue: From Discovery to Conversion, Milo Farley, Head of Domaine Labs, and Trey Hardin, VP of Creative, share what they're observing across the industry, where they see the greatest opportunities, and how brands can begin putting these technologies to work.
Here are three takes from the episode worth paying attention to:
AI discovery is about more than ranking your website
In this episode of Domaine Masterclass, one of Milo's central observations is that AI is collapsing stages of the traditional purchase journey. A customer can ask ChatGPT for the best carry-on suitcase under $500, compare recommendations against their requirements, and reach a purchasing decision without visiting multiple websites.
This creates an interesting dynamic for brands. Customers referred by AI may arrive with stronger purchasing intent, but brands first need to be part of the recommendation.
Milo makes an important distinction between onsite optimisation and offsite authority. When someone asks an AI assistant to recommend the best product in a category, the model is often looking for independent sources rather than a brand's own claims. Reviews, editorial coverage, and trusted third-party mentions therefore play an important role in discoverability.
Onsite content still matters, particularly when it answers the specific questions customers are asking. Milo shares how Domaine has approached this with our clients, aligning collection content with the kinds of non-branded queries customers use.
His recommendation is to start monitoring AI visibility now, even while directly attributable revenue remains relatively small. Understanding which conversations your brand appears in creates a baseline for improving discoverability over time.
Making onsite discovery as intuitive as AI search
AI is also changing customer expectations once they arrive on a website.
In this episode Director of Domaine Labs, Milo Farley, highlights the difference between someone searching for "shirts" and someone describing a particular style, occasion, or set of product attributes. The longer query communicates far more about what the customer wants, yet traditional keyword-matching search can struggle to interpret that intent.
As customers become accustomed to conversational AI, there's an opportunity for ecommerce brands to make onsite product discovery similarly intuitive.
Trey takes this further, exploring how emerging tools such as Tolstoy are bringing previously separate shopping interactions together. A customer might begin with virtual try-on, then ask questions about sizing, materials, or fit within the same experience.
AI-generated content is only as valuable as the brand identity behind it
For Domaine’s VP of Creative Trey, one of the most important considerations when introducing generative AI into creative workflows is maintaining brand quality.
As more businesses gain access to the same tools, the ability to generate content becomes less of a differentiator. What matters is whether that content reflects the brand's identity, creative judgement, and customer understanding.
Trey shares how Domaine is developing reusable, AI-readable brand guidelines that capture everything from tone of voice and design principles to art direction and creative preferences. Unlike a static brand book, these files can be used across different AI platforms and refined as teams learn what works.
This becomes particularly interesting when applied to marketing automation. Trey explores how AI tools can generate campaign creative and corresponding landing pages, test different variations, and use performance data to inform subsequent content.
Rather than simply producing more assets, the opportunity is to build a more responsive creative process, where brand consistency and customer behaviour inform ongoing optimisation.
Watch the Masterclass
These are just a few of the ideas Milo and Trey explore in the 22-minute session. If you're interested in a particular area, you can jump directly to the relevant discussion:
- 01:11 — AI-powered product discovery and referral traffic
- 05:00 — Improving brand visibility in AI search
- 07:39 — Shopify's AI tools, onsite experiences, and conversion
- 12:30 — Maintaining brand consistency across AI tools
- 15:00 — Automated campaigns and personalised landing pages
- 18:45 — AI discoverability audits and custom storefront agents
