Zia Daniell Wigder, Global President of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, joins Brian and Alicia to mark Shoptalk's 10th anniversary and unpack the themes defining the spring show in Las Vegas. (Hint: AI isn't the headline, it's the backdrop.) A week before one of retail’s biggest, most beloved shows, Zia maps the tensions, the conversations, and the hot topics shaping the next era of retail events.

• AI is the backdrop to retail in 2026, but it’s not the whole story
• As AI scales, in-person human connection becomes more valuable, not less
• Shoptalk curates its agenda top-down, then finds the speakers to match; it’s about bringing buzz brands, heritage retailers, and influential platforms together
• In the US, social commerce is still in its early days, which means it’s still incredibly underestimated; brand leaders will share their lessons and best practices on stage during tactical workshops for the first time
• Creator-brand relationships work better when brands let go of the brief

[00:05:00] "In-person human connections are even more important today than they have been in the past,  because we have all of this operational efficiency, all of this streamlining and optimization happening in the background in some cases, taking away some of the interactions we might've had before." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:11:52] "You've got the huge champions that say yes, [AI] is going to change everything about the world of product discovery as we know it. And then you've got the other side saying, this is way over-hyped." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:23:01] "Brands aren't necessarily asking about [social commerce] per se, but it almost feels like they should be." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:24:04] "Brands are still having briefs shoved at [creators] and telling them what they should be doing, as opposed to working with them in a more collaborative way." — Zia Daniell Wigder

• Shoptalk Spring 2026 – March, Las Vegas
• POSSIBLE – April, Miami
• Groceryshop – September, Las Vegas
• Manifest – February 2027, Las Vegas

• Visit Future Commerce’s Shoptalk hub to see what’s happening during the show
• Apply to attend our After Dark celebration of STRATA Vol. 001, our newest zine
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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As ChatGPT pulls back on native in-app checkout, malls becomemainstream again. Is agentic commerce ready for primetime, or are consumers seeking more analog experiences? PLUS: Dick's Sporting Goods' loyalty loop that turns steps into spending power, and a dystopian new platform that rents out humans for AI agents that can't operate in the physical world. Everything old is new again.

• ChatGPT is stepping back from native in-app checkout, but the commerce protocol it built with Stripe lives on
• 77% of shoppers prefer clicking through to a website over buying directly via AI
• The mall remains a societal favorite third space, even as stores become shoppable content studios (just ask John Lewis)
• Dick's Sporting Goods' movement-linked rewards program is quietly building one of retail's stickiest loyalty ecosystems, making it a viable competitor to AI apps
• "Rent-a-Human" platforms signal a strange new frontier: AI agents outsourcing tasks to people in “meatspace”

• How 2,000 consumers used AI to shop
• Gen Z Is Going to the Mall Again — WSJ
• Rent-a-Human
• Join us at Shoptalk Spring 2026!

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Phillip and Brian get deep on a week when everything felt a little unhinged: Shopify's AI sidekick started building custom apps, Iran allegedly took out AWS data centers mid-Claude-outage, and the McDonald's CEO went mega-viral just days after Phillip prophesied it. Underneath the chaos, a throughline emerges: the things we've used to measure value (view counts, credit card rewards, third-party apps, and AI contracts) are quietly expiring. Culture is first. Then comes commerce.

• Shopify Sidekick can now build one-off apps on demand, raising real questions about the future of third-party SaaS.
• AI geopolitics is here: data centers are now strategic infrastructure, and the "human in the loop" question has military stakes.
• Meta's move to invoicing ends years of free credit card rewards for brands running paid social, — and that party's been winding down anyway.
• MrBeast's long-form view counts are down 50% YoY, even with heavy paid promotion; the algorithm has shifted to interest-based, not subscriber-based.
• Media buyers optimizing for CPMs are chasing non-real traffic. — Rrecovering a sense of propriety is the only way back.

• How MrBeast Dominated 2025 Using Advertising
• Phillip’s Big Arch burger virality prediction
• Get on the list for the Future Commerce x Shoptalk After Party

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.