Conversational commerce is entering a decisive moment in 2026. Customer expectations have shifted toward intelligent, timely, and personalized support across digital touchpoints. Many enterprises still rely on basic chat tools and legacy systems that fall short of delivering the intelligence required for modern buying experiences. Leaders across the US, Europe, and the Middle East are now focused on solutions that move them from simple automation to agentic AI systems that influence discovery, conversion, and long term engagement.
This playbook outlines how CPOs and CTOs can prepare for this transition by adopting agentic conversational commerce, improving architecture, and building AI native systems that create meaningful outcomes.
The Shift From Chatbots to Agentic Systems
Traditional chatbots provided limited support. They offered answers to common questions but lacked deeper reasoning, context awareness, and the ability to guide users through product evaluation or decision cycles.
Agentic systems take a different approach. They interpret intent with greater accuracy, learn from context, reason with product data, and complete tasks tied to systems such as inventory, order management, CRM, and pricing. They support conversational commerce across chat interfaces, onsite tools, voice channels, and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. They rely on custom AI models built around brand voice, product structure, and operational rules.
Customers today expect helpful guidance, fast responses, and consistent experiences across every channel, which makes this transition increasingly important.
Why Most Enterprises Are Not Ready
Many enterprises are interested in adopting agentic capabilities, but their technology and processes are not built to support them. RoundCircle’s consulting work highlights several recurring issues.
Tech Stack Sprawl
Older OMS, CRM, CMS, and loyalty platforms operate independently, slowing data flow and limiting model performance.
The Personalization Gap
Modern customers expect personalized interactions, yet brands often struggle to combine product information, user behavior, and situational data in real time.
Lack of Proprietary Models
Generic AI models do not reflect brand tone, product rules, or pricing structure. Enterprises need custom AI models for commerce that understand their data and logic.
Operational Bottlenecks
Manual workflows and slow deployment cycles make it difficult to update systems and adopt new capabilities. Many organizations now begin with an AI readiness assessment to identify where improvements are needed.
The Conversational Commerce Maturity Curve
C suite leaders can evaluate their progress with this three stage model.
Basic Chatbots
Simple rule based systems with limited influence on revenue.
Contextual Assistants
Support browsing and common questions. Some personalization, but limited reasoning and autonomy.
Agentic Commerce Systems
The emerging standard for 2026. These systems recognize intent, guide decisions, complete tasks within enterprise systems, and operate across channels.
Organizations at this stage see improvements in conversion, higher AOV, increased retention, and lower support cost.
What Agentic Systems Look Like in Practice
An agentic conversational commerce system includes:
- Reliable intent recognition
- Personalization supported by proprietary embeddings
- Interactions across chat, onsite, voice, and messaging channels
- Automated support for tasks such as returns, order updates, onboarding, and subscription management
- Continuous improvement based on customer interactions
- Clear governance aligned with enterprise standards
This type of system helps create a connected experience and supports long term customer experience transformation.
How CPOs and CTOs Should Build Their 2026 Roadmap
Conduct an AI Readiness Assessment
Organizations start by reviewing data sources, integration layers, and governance structures to determine which upgrades are needed and which use cases hold the strongest potential.
Prioritize High Value Use Cases
Focus on the parts of the journey where conversational commerce has the greatest influence. This includes discovery, product search, personalization, conversion assistance, and post purchase care.
Develop Proprietary AI Models
RoundCircle builds custom AI models for commerce using foundation model adaptation, RLHF, and retrieval models trained on product catalogs, pricing data, and behavioral signals.
Deploy Intelligence Across Channels
Agentic assistants provide the strongest results when used across web, chat, WhatsApp, voice, and mobile channels. ShopIQ is designed to support multi channel deployment.
Optimize Continuously
Teams refine responses, adjust intent models, review conversation data, and adapt content as customer needs evolve.
Proof Points and Early Implementations
Agentic systems are already shaping customer journeys and support quality.
OLX Magic helps users browse, compare, and purchase through intelligent conversational interactions.
Prosus Toqan Chat provides secure AI assistance within WhatsApp for writing, analysis, and internal workflows.
Wyz Interact supports SaaS marketplaces by delivering continuous presales engagement.
These examples reflect how conversational commerce is influencing discovery, support, and decision making.
Strategic Advantage for AI Native Commerce
Organizations that adopt AI native architecture see gains across experimentation, personalization, multi market adaptability, and brand differentiation. Proprietary intelligence becomes a long term advantage that strengthens outcomes across the entire customer lifecycle.
Executive Call to Action
Conversational commerce is entering a significant phase in 2026. The transition from basic chat tools to agentic AI systems is changing how customers explore products, make decisions, and seek support. CPOs and CTOs who prioritize this shift will deliver better experiences and stronger business outcomes.
RoundCircle partners with global organizations to create AI strategy, build custom models, modernize commerce architecture, and deploy intelligent assistants that support measurable results.
Book a strategy call with RoundCircle to begin planning your 2026 conversational commerce roadmap.
