customer-experience

The first agentic holiday season: A post-purchase checklist for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026

This is the first Black Friday where AI agents can check out on a shopper's behalf. Here's why post-purchase is what will decide who wins it, and a checklist to get ready before November 27.

Zendesk's Open Service Directory: How Personal AI Assistants find Customer Support

Zendesk's Open Service Directory gives personal AI assistants a verified way to find a brand's official support. Here's how it works, what it isn't, the open questions, and what commerce brands need behind it.

Shopify's Fall '26 Edition: Universal Checkout, Shopify Catalog, and the agentic commerce shifts most coverage missed

The headlines were shop.md, Sidekick and Canvas, but the bigger story is quieter: Shopify's catalog, checkout, sign-in and answers now reach shoppers wherever their personal agents are - including for brands not on Shopify.

Shopify's shop.md: When the shopper's AI agent is the one asking "where's my order?"

With shop.md, announced in Shopify's Fall '26 Edition, a shopper's own AI agent can now check out and track orders. Here's what that changes for post-purchase support.

Agentic checkout is here: What UCP and October's AI innovations mean for your eCommerce brand

In three weeks, Google, Shopify, Salesforce and Commerce.com all opened checkout to AI agents, much of it over the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

Zendesk Custom Agents: Specialized AI agents are only as good as the actions behind them

Zendesk introduced Specialized AI Agents on September 14: Industry Agents, starting with commerce, and Custom Agents built in Agent Builder. Here's what shipped, what's in early access, and what custom agents still need.

Zendesk action flows got cheaper: Marketplace connectors, MCP and credit-free native actions

In August, Zendesk opened a Marketplace section for action flow connectors and stopped charging action credits for native Zendesk actions. Here's what that means for commerce brands and their AI agents.

Stackable Labs: Why Zendesk Messenger needs a customer experience layer

Customers bring real problems to the messenger: an order, a booking, an approval. Stackable Messenger lets brands answer with live data and one-click actions beside the conversation, not just more text inside it.