Best AI Tools for eCommerce - How They Work, Their Benefits, and 6 Top Picks in 2026


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TL;DR
Summary
- AI tools are a necessity for online stores today. They automate tasks, make work faster, improve personal shopping, and grow customer support around the clock.
- Top names like Thunai.ai, Jasper AI, Help Scout, DALL-E, Canva AI, and Intercom solve major e-commerce hurdles. These range from task automation to creative work and reaching out to customers first.
- Thunai stands out by using independent AI agents that act, learn, and finish work across sales, support, and marketing. This cuts down on manual labor and helps bring in more money.
- Picking the right AI depends on your specific aims: large-scale automation, making content, help with design, or human-led support for customer success.
Are you finding it hard to stand out in the crowded e-commerce marketplace?
Running an e-commerce business is now more demanding than ever!
However, AI tools for e-commerce can help you save time with this.
Here is what you should know about AI Tools for e-commerce. We also list our top six picks to help you build a smarter, more efficient, and more profitable online business.
What are AI Tools for eCommerce?
AI Tools for eCommerce are specialized software applications. They use artificial intelligence to automate and improve different parts of an online retail business.
AI tools for e-commerce act as intelligent assistants. They can understand data, generate content, interact with customers, and carry out complex tasks.
This shows the main difference between a simple scheduling app and an AI platform that can manage your entire marketing campaign. It also separates a basic FAQ page from an AI agent that can resolve customer issues from start to finish.
For modern online businesses, using the right AI tools for e-commerce is no longer an option. It’s become a strategic necessity for survival and growth.
How AI Tools for eCommerce Work
Different AI tools for e-commerce have unique functions. However, they generally operate on a similar set of basic principles. They often combine several AI technologies to deliver a complete solution.
- Data Input and Learning: First, the AI tool learns from the data you supply. This could involve processing your entire product catalog or your brand's style guide. It could also learn from past customer conversations or help-desk articles. For a tool like an AI customer support agent, this creates a central source of information about your business.
- Understanding User Intent: A user interacts with the tool. This could be a customer asking a question or a marketer typing a prompt. The AI uses Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to figure out the meaning and intent behind the words. It does not just hear shipping info. It understands the user wants to know the status of their specific order.
- Generating a Response or Action: After understanding the request, the AI decides what to do. This could be generating creative marketing copy or designing a unique visual. It could also be finding the correct answer to a support query. For content generation, it uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) to form sentences that are creative and on-brand. For visual tools, it uses generative models to create images from text descriptions.
- Execution and Connection: The most advanced AI tools do not just respond; they act. An agentic AI can connect with your other business software, like your CRM or Shopify store. After a conversation, it can execute multi-step workflows. These workflows can include processing a return, updating a customer record, or even placing a new order automatically. This happens without needing a human to intervene.
Benefits of AI Tools for eCommerce
Adding smart AI tools into your eCommerce operations is more than a tech upgrade. It is a powerful strategy to build a more resilient and profitable business. Here are some of the biggest benefits you can expect:
- Greatly Improved Efficiency: AI tools in e-commerce automate the time-consuming, repetitive tasks that slow down your team. Imagine generating a month's worth of social media content in an hour. Or picture having an AI handle 80% of routine customer questions.
- Hyper-Personalization at Scale: AI can analyze customer data to deliver personalized experiences that were previously impossible. This includes proactive chat messages to prevent cart abandonment. It also includes personalized product recommendations based on Browse history and marketing copy that speaks directly to different customer personas.
- Always-On 24/7 Customer Support: Your customers shop at all hours, and an AI support agent is always available. It can give instant, accurate answers to questions about orders, shipping, and returns around the clock, on weekends, and during holidays.
- Better Cost Savings: While some AI tools have a subscription fee, the return on investment can be large. AI can lower the need to hire large teams for customer support or content creation. An AI agent that can resolve 50% of support tickets is one example. An AI tool that removes the need for expensive photoshoots is another. Both give direct and substantial savings on operational costs.
- Consistent, On-Brand Communication: Humans can have off days, but an AI trained on your brand guidelines will always be consistent. This applies to the tone of an email or the visual style of a social media post. AI makes certain that every touchpoint with your customers perfectly matches your brand identity.
Top AI Tools for eCommerce
With a flood of AI on the market, choosing the right AI ecommerce tools can be overwhelming. We’ve reviewed the landscape to find the best platforms available in 2025 that deliver real-world results for e-commerce businesses.
1. Thunai.ai
Launched in 2025, Thunai.ai is new to the AI platform space. This AI tool for e-commerce positions itself beyond conventional automation tools. It frames its services around intelligent agents capable of autonomous action, making it one of the best AI tools for ecommerce in terms of reducing workload.
The AI platform is designed to turn a company's scattered knowledge into functional AI agents. These agents can act, respond, and automate complex workflows across sales, marketing, and customer support.
This concentration on an agentic framework appeals to a more sophisticated user base. These users are seeking to automate entire business processes, not just separate tasks.
Key Features of Thunai.ai:
- Thunai Brain: This foundational component serves as a centralized knowledge hub. It takes in and organizes data from an array of sources like documents, videos, and chats. For an e-commerce business, this creates a single source of truth for all product specifications, shipping policies, and return procedures.
- AI Agents (Voice, Chat, Email, Application): Thunai has distinct agents for different channels, all powered by the central Brain. The Voice & Chat agents give 24/7 customer support in over 80 languages. They handle tasks like answering Where is my order? queries and guiding customers through returns.
- Sales & Support Automation: The platform is designed to be a revenue-driving tool. It can automatically qualify leads and give real-time suggestions to human agents. It can also update CRM records without manual data entry. The stated goal is to lower time spent on routine administrative tasks by up to 80%.
Pros:
- The platform's highly advanced agentic AI capabilities go beyond simple conversation.
- The unified Thunai Brain knowledge hub and extensive multilingual support are key advantages.
- Its strong attention to measurable business outcomes for sales and support teams is a compelling feature.
- The accessible entry-level pricing model creates a low barrier to entry for experimentation.
Cons:
- As a newer player in the market, Thunai.ai lacks a long-term, proven track record.
Pricing:
Thunai.ai has a forever-free plan and a Starter plan at $9/month. There is also a $99 per month Basic tier.
2. Jasper AI
Founded in 2021, Jasper AI experienced explosive growth. This AI tool for ecommerce quickly established itself as a leader in the generative AI space.
The company has strategically expanded its scope from a powerful tool for marketing copy to a full-stack AI platform built entirely for Marketing. Right now Jasper is one of the best AI tools for e-commerce marketing.
This AI in e-commerce is a direct response to the increasing availability of basic text generation. Jasper aims to create a more defensible and connected solution by incorporating brand-specific context and workflow automation.
Key Features of Jasper AI:
- Core Content Generation: Jasper excels at creating a wide variety of high-quality marketing content. It has over 50 specialized templates to speed up the creation of blog posts, social media campaigns, ad copy, and email marketing content.
- Jasper IQ (Brand & Company Knowledge): This important feature acts as a context layer. It allows the AI to be trained on a company's specific brand identity, style guides, and product catalogs. This confirms all generated content is creative, on-brand, and factually accurate about its products.
- AI-Powered Agents & Workflows: The Studio feature allows marketing teams to design and deploy custom, no-code workflows. For example, a New Product Launch workflow could automatically generate a product description, social posts, and a launch email from a few key inputs.
- Multilingual Support & SEO Connection: Jasper supports content creation in over 30 languages. It connects with tools like Surfer SEO to help make certain content optimized to rank well in search engines.
Pros:
- Jasper is exceptional at generating high-quality, on-brand marketing copy at scale.
- The platform's new agentic workflows and thorough template library are highly practical for marketing teams.
Cons:
- A significant criticism is that the AI does not have live internet access and can invent facts. This means all outputs require careful human fact-checking.
- The platform is expensive and lacks a free-forever plan, positioning it as a capital investment.
- The absence of a direct export feature or connection with e-commerce platforms like Shopify requires a manual copy-and-paste workflow.
Pricing:
The entry-level Creator plan starts at $49 per month per seat. The Pro plan, aimed at small teams, starts at $69 per month per seat.
3. Help Scout
Help Scout was built on a customer-centric philosophy, and right now is one of the best customer support AI solutions for e-commerce stores.
This AI tool for ecommerce businesses lets businesses build long-term, human relationships with their customers.
This human-centric method directly informs its use of AI in e-commerce, which is designed to assist agents rather than replace them.
Key Features of Help Scout:
- Core Communication Tools: The platform's foundation consists of a Shared Inbox for team emails. It also includes a Live Chat widget (Beacon) for real-time support and a Knowledge Base (Docs) for self-service help centers.
- Assistive AI Features: Branded as AI Assist, the AI functionality is intentionally designed to be an aid. Features include the ability to automatically summarize long conversation threads. It can also refine the tone and clarity of replies, translate messages, and create first drafts for agents to edit.
- AI-Powered Self-Service: The Beacon chat widget can use AI to search the knowledge base. It can give customers instant answers from existing help articles, deflecting common questions.
- Workflow Automation: The platform has strong workflows for routing conversations and managing the support queue. An e-commerce store can, for example, create a workflow that automatically assigns all conversations containing the word refund to a specific team.
Pros:
- The platform is highly affordable. It has a simple, transparent, and predictable per-user pricing model that is attractive to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Cons:
- The AI capabilities are purely assistive. They are less powerful than the agentic or automation-first platforms.
- A common point of criticism is the mobile application. It is described as being buggy and lacking key features from the desktop version.
- The platform lacks the advanced proactive marketing and sales features found in more expensive and complex competitors like Intercom.
Pricing:
The Standard plan, capped at 25 users, is $20 per user per month and includes core AI assistance features. The Plus plan is $40 per user per month.
4. DALL-E
DALL-E is not a standalone company but a flagship product of OpenAI. OpenAI is one of the world's leading AI research labs.
As a product of OpenAI, its development is guided by the company's broader principles of safety and responsible deployment. This has a significant impact on the user experience, making it one of the best AI tools for e-commerce businesses.
Its latest version, DALL-E 3, is built natively on ChatGPT. This changes the image generation process from a single command into an iterative, conversational brainstorming session.
Key Features of DALL-E:
- Advanced Prompt Understanding: DALL-E 3 understands much more nuance and detail within a prompt than previous systems. This allows e-commerce businesses to generate highly specific visuals. For instance, they can create a lifestyle photo of a product being used in a particular setting.
- Connection with ChatGPT: A user can start with a simple idea. ChatGPT will then act as a brainstorming partner, generating more detailed prompts.
- Commercial Use Rights: Images created with DALL-E 3 belong to the user. OpenAI grants full rights to reprint, sell, or merchandise the generated images. This is an important feature for any commercial e-commerce application.
Pros:
- DALL-E is an exceptionally powerful creative engine. It is capable of generating highly accurate and novel images from complex text prompts.
- Its deep connection with ChatGPT makes it an excellent tool for ideation and iterative design. This results in a more intuitive creative process.
- The output is often described as rawer and livelier than competitors. This makes it excellent for creating unique and memorable images rather than generic stock photo visuals.
Cons:
- The user experience is seriously hampered by strict and often unclear content moderation. This frequently refuses to generate images in ways that feel overly restrictive.
- Users report a strong stylistic bias. The model often defaults to a generic, waxy, or glossy digital art style that can be undesirable.
- The multifaceted pricing structure can be confusing. Access is available through several different channels with distinct costs.
Pricing:
Free access is available. A paid ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs about $20 per month, includes DALL-E 3.
5. Canva AI
When it comes to beginner-friendly design for product images or promotional banners, Canva is the best AI e-commerce tool to work with.
The company's AI features, collected in a suite of tools, are a natural evolution of this core mission. They use AI to further simplify and speed up the design process for its large user base, making it one of the best AI tools for e-commerce businesses.
Key Features of Canva AI:
- AI Suite: This is the umbrella term for Canva's collection of AI-powered tools. It includes a tool for copywriting, a text-to-image generator for unique visuals, and an editing tool for intelligently replacing or removing objects from photos.
- A Resizing Tool: This powerful tool can instantly reformat a single design for multiple platforms with one click. An e-commerce business can convert a design into an Instagram post, a Facebook banner, and a blog header. This saves immense amounts of time.
- Vast Template and Asset Library: A core strength is its enormous library of templates, photos, and graphics. This allows businesses with no in-house design team to quickly create polished and professional assets.
- Brand Kit: This feature allows businesses to store their logos, brand colors, and fonts. This makes certain that all designs created by the team remain consistent and on-brand.
Pros:
- The platform is incredibly easy to use. It has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that makes it accessible to users of all skill levels.
- It presents an exceptional value proposition. It has a remarkably strong free plan and an affordable Pro plan that gives a large return on investment.
- The all-in-one nature of the platform allows e-commerce businesses to consolidate many design and content creation tasks into a single tool.
Cons:
- The most consistent and significant criticism of Canva is its poor customer support. Users report difficulty canceling subscriptions and slow or unhelpful responses.
- For professional designers, Canva's simplicity is its biggest limitation. It lacks the granular, pixel-perfect control of advanced tools like Adobe Photoshop.
- Its AI features are generally seen as helpful accelerators. However, they are not as creatively powerful as dedicated generative AI tools.
Pricing:
The Canva Pro plan is $14.99 per month for one person. The Teams plan starts at $29.99 per month for five people.
6. Intercom
Founded in 2011, Intercom is a pioneer in the customer messaging space. It has evolved into a complete, AI-first customer service solution.
Its flagship AI agent, Fin, is designed to handle entire frontline support conversations with human-like quality. This can come in handy when dealing with priority responses or escalations.
When it comes to automating workflows and interacting with customers, Intercom is one of the top AI tools for e-commerce businesses to work with.
Key Features of Intercom:
- Fin AI Agent: This is the centerpiece of Intercom's AI strategy. It is designed to resolve up to 50% of support inquiries instantly. It learns from a company's knowledge base and can handle complex, multi-turn conversations. It can process refunds, check on product availability, and answer questions about shipping status.
- Proactive Support & Sales: A key differentiator is the platform's ability to use behavioral data to trigger automated, personalized messages. This can be used to lower cart abandonment with a timely discount or to proactively suggest relevant product upgrades based on a customer's Browse history.
- Omnichannel Inbox: Intercom supplies a unified inbox that consolidates conversations from every channel. This includes live chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social media. It brings them into a single view for support agents.
- Deep E-commerce Connections: The platform has smooth connections with key e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Stripe. This allows agents to modify orders and issue refunds directly within Intercom.
Pros:
- Intercom is a powerful, polished, and mature AI-first platform. It has a feature-rich and user-friendly interface.
- Its proactive engagement features for upselling, cross-selling, and lowering cart abandonment are exceptionally well-suited for e-commerce.
- The platform gives deep and smooth connections with essential e-commerce tools like Shopify, creating highly efficient workflows.
Cons:
- The platform's pricing model is consistently cited by users as its most significant and problematic aspect. It is extremely high-cost, complex, and unpredictable.
- For a company that sells customer support software, its own support is frequently described in user reviews as terrible, non-existent, and extremely poor. This creates a major operational risk.
- The combination of high seat prices, per-resolution fees, and paid add-ons for core functionality can make the total cost of ownership unsustainable for many businesses.
Pricing:
The model is built on tiered, per-seat plans (starting at $29/seat/mo). On top of this are layered multiple usage-based fees. This includes a charge of $0.99 per resolution handled by the Fin AI agent.
7. Shopify Magic
Shopify AI is a tool built into the Shopify admin. It assists store owners with making product descriptions, emails, and site content quickly.
Because it is a native part of the platform, you do not have to worry about third-party apps or syncing data. It helps merchants save time and improve how their store runs.
Key Features of Shopify Magic:
- Automatic Text Generation
This tool makes SEO-friendly descriptions, blogs, and emails in an instant. It looks at the context of your products and the voice of your brand. This allows merchants to post better content without having to write everything by hand. - Media Generation
The AI fixes product photos by taking out or changing backgrounds. It makes clean, professional images without needing other design software. Better photos help a brand look consistent and can lead to more sales. - Shopify Inbox Integration
The AI suggests smart replies when you are chatting with customers. These answers are based on specific product details and what the shopper wants. This makes support faster and helps turn a simple chat into a sale.
Pros:
- Seamlessly built into the store admin with no additional setup or data syncing required.
- Free for all Shopify merchants regardless of their plan.
Cons:
- Functionality is limited exclusively to the Shopify ecosystem.
Pricing:
Included for free with all Shopify subscriptions, which start at $\$39$/month.
8. Klaviyo AI
Klaviyo AI is an automation platform for DTC brands. It uses data to figure out customer habits and buying cycles.
Brands use it to send personal email and SMS messages at the best moments. This leads to more interaction, more repeat customers, and better value over time.
Key Features of Klaviyo AI:
- Predictive Analytics
Klaviyo AI guesses customer lifetime value and when someone might stop buying. It looks at past actions and how people interact with the brand. These insights help brands reach the right people. - Automated Flows
The platform has more than 60 pre-made automation paths. These cover things like abandoned carts and follow-ups after a purchase. Automation makes certain that messages go out on time. - AI Marketing Agent
The AI writes email subject lines that get people to click. It also finds the best time to send messages to each person. This helps more people see and open your emails.
Pros:
- Deep integration with Shopify and transactional data for hyper-segmentation.
- Proven high ROI for businesses scaling from initial growth to enterprise levels.
Cons:
- Substantial learning curve and pricing increases significantly as contact lists grow.
Pricing:
Free for up to 250 profiles; paid Email plans start at $\$20$/month, and Email + SMS starts at $\$35$/month.24
9. Algolia
Algolia is a fast AI search engine for online stores. It gives shoppers relevant results even if they make a typo.
This helps people find what they want right away. A better search experience leads to happier customers and more sales.
Key Features of Algolia:
- NeuralSearch
This feature understands what a person is actually looking for. It deals with typos and synonyms well. Shoppers can find what they need even if they do not use the exact right words. - Real-Time Results
Algolia shows results in less than 100 milliseconds. Fast speeds keep people from getting annoyed and leaving the site. Speed makes the user experience better. - Dynamic Merchandising
The engine changes the order of products based on what a shopper likes. Each person sees a list meant for them. This makes it easier for people to discover new products.
Pros:
- Directly boosts conversion rates; early users of NeuralSearch saw a $17\%$ uplift.
- Highly scalable with a generous free tier for developers and small stores.
Cons:
- Usage-based pricing can become very expensive and hard to forecast at scale.
Pricing:
Free "Build" plan for up to 10,000 searches/month; paid "Grow" plans start at approximately $\$0.50$ per 1,000 additional queries.
10. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is a content optimization platform built for search engine rankings. It analyzes top Google results to guide SEO-friendly content creation.
E-commerce teams use data insights to improve on-page SEO performance. This helps websites rank higher and attract consistent organic traffic.
Key Features of Surfer SEO:
- Content Editor
Surfer SEO provides real-time guidance for keyword usage and structure. It analyzes top-ranking Google pages for comparison. Writers create content that matches current SERP expectations. - Topical Maps
Topical Maps organize keywords into content clusters. This helps e-commerce sites build authority in their niche. Stronger authority leads to better long-term search rankings. - AI Tracker
Surfer SEO tracks organic visibility across AI-powered search platforms. It monitors performance on tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Brands gain insights into how AI search affects how people find them.
Pros:
- Extremely high accuracy rate ($94-96\%$) for content optimization recommendations.
- Helps brands rank faster by reverse-engineering what is already working on page one.
Cons:
- Monthly costs can be steep for solo founders or very small teams.
Pricing:
The Essential plan starts at $\$79$/month, and the Scale plan is $\$175$/month
How to Choose the Right AI Tool for Your eCommerce Store
Selecting the right AI tools for e-commerce depends entirely on your business's scale, budget, and philosophy. Here is a simple guide to help you choose the perfect fit for your store.
- First, Define Your Primary Goal: Before you look at any software, ask what problem you're trying to solve. Do you need to automate customer support? Or do you need an all-in-one design tool for a team of non-designers? Your goal decides everything.
- Automation vs. Assistance: This is a very important philosophical choice. Do you want an AI that can handle entire conversations and workflows autonomously? Then you need an agentic platform like Thunai or Intercom.
- Consider the True Cost: Do not just look at the monthly fee. Intercom has a high total cost of ownership with its per-resolution fees. Jasper is a significant per-seat investment. In contrast, Canva and Help Scout present incredible value for a flat, predictable fee.
- Assess Ease of Use and Connection: A powerful tool is useless if your team cannot use it. Canva is famously easy to use, while a platform like Jasper has a steeper learning curve.
- Start with a Pilot Project: Never attempt a company-wide rollout immediately. Use the free and low-cost trials from platforms like Thunai and Canva to run a small, measurable pilot project.
Comparison Table: AI Tools for eCommerce
To make it even easier, here is a breakdown of our top AI tools for e-commerce. Note that pricing is subject to change and often has different tiers, so this is a general guide.
| AI Tool | Best For | Pricing Model | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunai.ai | Autonomous Workflows | Freemium (Starts $9/mo) | Agents that act, not just converse. |
| Jasper AI | Marketing Content | Premium (Starts $49/mo) | High-quality brand-aligned copy. |
| Help Scout | Human Support | Tiered (Starts $20/mo) | Assistive AI for human agents. |
| DALL-E | Ad Creatives | Subscription ($20/mo) | Native brainstorming with ChatGPT. |
| Canva AI | Visual Design | Freemium (Starts $14.99/mo) | Extreme ease of use for non-designers. |
| Intercom | Proactive Support | Seat-Based + Fees | Mature omnichannel support agent. |
| Shopify Magic | Platform Native AI | Free (with Shopify plan) | Natively built-in with no setup. |
| Klaviyo AI | Email/SMS ROI | Tiered (Starts $20/mo) | Predictive data for repeat sales. |
| Algolia | Search/Discovery | Usage-Based (Free tier) | High-speed semantic search. |
| Surfer SEO | Content Rankings | Subscription (Starts $79/mo) | Data-backed content optimization. |
Grow Your Business with AI tools for E-commerce
While many AI tools for e-commerce can generate text or an image, a platform that produces a major change acts as an autonomous employee.
Thunai gives you a complete AI workforce built from the ground up to do the job, not just say the words.
Thunai’s agents can handle entire customer conversations 24/7, qualify sales leads, automate returns, and resolve complex issues in over 80 languages. Get instant, intelligent support for your customers while freeing up your human team to work on growing the business.
Want to see how an agentic AI platform can revolutionize your eCommerce operations? Why not try Thunai out for free and build your first AI agent in minutes!
AI Tools for eCommerce FAQs
What are the best AI tools for eCommerce?
Thunai AI is a powerful tool for e-commerce for customer support and automating workflows. Alongside this, some of the best AI tools for e-commerce like Canva can be essential for startups needing marketing design. Jasper AI is ideal for scaling content creation.
How can AI be used in eCommerce?
AI can be used in e-commerce to automate customer support. This is done by having AI agents answer common questions and handle issues 24/7. It is also used to generate marketing content like persuasive product descriptions and ad copy. It can even create unique visuals for campaigns. Furthermore, advanced AI can proactively engage customers to lower cart abandonment or upsell products
What is the best AI chatbot for e-commerce?
Thunai comes with a wide range of intelligent chat, voice, and email agents that can be perfect for your e-commerce business. For brands that want to maintain a personal touch, Help Scout gives assistive AI that makes human agents more efficient without replacing them
Does Shopify have AI?
Yes, Shopify has its own suite of built-in AI tools. This suite contains a range of AI-powered features directly within the platform. These features help merchants with store building, marketing, customer support, and back-office management.


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