Why It Matters in an Uncertain Economy
Structured data is the essential fuel that powers intelligent decision-making, especially in an unpredictable economic environment. AI agents equipped with clean, structured product data can rapidly generate, adapt, and deploy listings across multiple retailers, accelerating time to shelf and enabling faster pivots when consumer demand shifts.
Proactive brands use AI to organise structured sales and product metadata, enabling precise demand forecasting and automated replenishment. This reduces costly overstock or stockouts. In addition, clean product data minimizes returns caused by inaccurate listings and helps drive down operational costs.
The readiness for technologies like virtual shopping assistants, conversational agents, and voice commerce hinges entirely on structured product data. Without it, even the most advanced AI agents can’t interpret queries, recommend products, or take meaningful action.
A New Competitive Divide
Agentic AI is creating a widening competitive divide. Brands that prioritize structured data and AI governance are pulling ahead; those stuck in fragmented systems are falling behind.
Winning brands treat structured data as a strategic asset. They invest in PIM platforms and taxonomy governance. They create structured, brand-aligned product content at scale and operationalize AI across commerce, syndication, and customer experience. These brands are able to confidently deploy technologies like Rufus-style shopping assistants, localized content generation models, and automated replenishment systems that improve every touchpoint of the digital shelf.
In contrast, brands that continue to rely on inconsistent, spreadsheet-based processes lack the data integrity required to power AI. Their systems are often siloed, their taxonomies are misaligned, and their product content is incomplete or outdated. As a result, they are unable to scale AI-driven personalization, voice commerce, or automated syndication, and they miss critical opportunities for growth and efficiency.
Salsify reports that brands focused on AI-readiness and governance are three times more likely to grow digital revenue.23
Source Reference 23: https://www.salsify.com/blog/state-of-the-digital-shelf-2024
