From novelty to necessity: Smarter AI strategies for retail with Phillip Jackson
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back to Insights Unlocked. In this episode, we're joined by Philip Jackson, co-founder of Future Commerce and a leading voice in retail. We dig into why commerce is really about culture, how AI is quietly shaping customer experiences, and why a little friction can actually be a good thing. Get ready for some bold takes and practical insights you can use right now. Enjoy the show.
Welcome to Insights Unlocked, an original podcast from User Testing, where we bring you candid conversations and stories with the thinkers, doers, and builders behind some of the most successful digital products and experiences in the world, from concept to execution.
Welcome to the Insights Unlocked podcast. I'm Nathan Isaacs, Principal Content Marketing Manager at UserTesting. And joining us today as host is Mike McDowell, Principal Solution Marketing Manager at UserTesting.
What does Phillip Jackson say about the relationship between commerce and culture?
Welcome back to the show, Mike. Always happy to be here, Nathan. Thanks. And our guest today is Philip Jackson, co-founder of Future Commerce and a leading voice in digital commerce. With deep roots in retail innovation and a sharp eye on the future of consumer behavior, Philip brings bold perspectives that challenge the status quo. Welcome to the show, Philip. Thank you so much for having me.
So, Philip, just to get started, I guess not a lot of people are going to, not a lot of people, but there's people that aren't familiar with Future Commerce. So, can you talk a little bit about the background and what made you start the company and maybe what you're aiming to change or challenge in the world of digital commerce, which is going through a lot right now?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
How is AI shaping customer experiences in retail?
I mean, talk about going through a lot in nine years ago when we founded the company. The talk of the town was, you know, we were coming out of the omnichannel buzzword era and then we were going to conversational commerce. Right. That was a big buzzword. Alexa just sort of wound up on everybody's nightstand. And yeah, the industry, you know, one thing that's constant in the industry is change. Future Commerce is really founded out of my 22 years of experience in e-commerce and retail. I spent 10 years of my career in the very beginning of my career as a software engineer right at the beginning in what we would call now direct-to-consumer brands, Mike. We didn't call it that Back then, it was just we were doing e-commerce.
But there were vertically integrated brands. And I was helping teams build software architecture teams, quality teams. And I was in-house at brands. I helped to scale a number of brands, helped to... you know, get them to exit. And that was a real privilege. Along the way, I decided, you know, the agencies that we're hiring along the way didn't quite know what they were doing. I was teaching them how to do their jobs and then paying them for it. And so at some point I decided, you know, after my second round of going through an exit,
What is the hidden value of friction in the customer journey?
It was time to maybe make the leap over to strategy. And I spent 10 years at an agency. And I spent a lot of time in the boardroom, spent a lot of time in the executive suite. And it didn't matter whether I was in software development engineer phase. It didn't matter whether I was in the boardroom. For 20 years, what I heard really, and it's abstract at the fundamental level, were conversations about how people were trying to affect the culture. And that is really where we came down to. When you come down to brass tacks, I believe that commerce and culture are uniquely intertwined and that because our culture is so obsessed with what we buy and how we buy it, That, you know, it is part of our identity.
It's our fundamental identity that commerce is worthy of unique examination. And how do we examine things today? Well, we are also obsessed with media. We are, you know, we're listening to podcasts constantly. We're tapping into social media constantly. We're on short form video. I'm subscribed to 200 newsletters. I can't maybe 201 by the time this is over. And, uh, we also have a ton of primary research.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:57
2
What does Phillip Jackson say about the relationship between commerce and culture?
0:57–1:41
3
How is AI shaping customer experiences in retail?
1:41–2:58
4
What is the hidden value of friction in the customer journey?
2:58–5:50
5
How can brands achieve meaningful personalization?
5:50–8:21
6
What strategies can brands use to stand out in e-commerce?
8:21–9:56
7
Why is clean data essential for leveraging AI in retail?
9:56–11:27
8
What practical areas should brands invest in to enhance customer experience?
11:27–39:53
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Insights Unlocked
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