The Global Development of AI and Its Implications for E-commerce

At Balkan eCommerce Summit 2026, Jesse Weltevreden from RankMyAI presented a data-driven overview of the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem and its growing impact on eCommerce, search behavior, product discovery, and digital visibility.

Drawing insights from RankMyAI’s global database of over 62,000 AI tools, the session explored how AI is transforming not only technology, but also the way consumers search, discover brands, and interact with online commerce.

AI Is Growing at an Unprecedented Speed

Jesse began by emphasizing the enormous scale and speed of AI development.

According to RankMyAI:

• more than 62,000 AI tools are currently tracked
• the real market likely exceeds 100,000–200,000 AI solutions globally
• new tools launch every day at an extraordinary pace

Most AI companies and products have been founded after 2019, highlighting how new and rapidly expanding the market still is.

The main message:
AI is not stabilizing – it is accelerating.

AI Traffic Has Exploded Since 2023

One of the most striking insights presented was the growth in traffic to AI platforms.

Since 2023:

• traffic to AI tools has tripled
• user adoption continues to accelerate globally
• chatbots and AI assistants are becoming mainstream consumer tools

However, despite this explosive growth, the AI ecosystem remains highly concentrated.

The Market Is Growing – But Highly Concentrated

Jesse explained that although thousands of AI tools exist, the majority of attention and funding flows toward only a handful of dominant players.

Traffic Concentration

The top 4 AI platforms account for:

• more than 50% of all AI traffic globally

Funding Concentration

Only around 68 companies account for:

• 50% of total AI funding worldwide

This demonstrates that while launching AI tools is easier than ever, market power remains concentrated among large foundational AI providers.

Why So Many AI Tools Exist

According to Jesse, the barriers to launching AI products are now extremely low.

Today:

• anyone who can build a website
• connect APIs
• integrate AI models

can launch an AI tool very quickly.

This has created:

• massive tool proliferation
• limited differentiation
• thousands of nearly identical AI products

Examples include:

• image generation tools
• video generation tools
• writing assistants

Many solve the same problems with only minor differences.

Most AI Tools Depend on the Same Few Models

Another important point was that most AI products ultimately rely on a small number of core AI providers such as:

• OpenAI
• Google
• Anthropic
• Microsoft

This means:

• foundational models control much of the ecosystem
• traffic and value concentrate around the infrastructure layer
• many smaller AI tools are dependent on the same underlying technology

Chatbots Are Becoming the New Discovery Layer

Jesse highlighted the explosive rise of AI chatbots such as:

• ChatGPT
• Google Gemini
• Claude
• Microsoft Copilot

While ChatGPT still dominates, Gemini and Claude are rapidly growing.

The session emphasized that consumers increasingly begin their journeys directly inside AI assistants instead of traditional search engines.

AI Is Changing Search Behavior

One of the most important implications for eCommerce discussed during the keynote was the transformation of search itself.

Consumers are increasingly:

• searching through AI chatbots
• relying on AI summaries
• discovering products via conversational interfaces

This creates a major shift away from traditional search engine behavior.

Traditional SEO Alone Is No Longer Enough

Jesse explained that traditional SEO strategies are becoming less sufficient in the AI era.

In classic search:

• users browse long product lists
• compare multiple links
• visit many websites

In AI-driven search:

• users receive only a few suggested answers
• visibility becomes heavily filtered
• recommendation space becomes dramatically smaller

This creates a major challenge for brands:
Even strong SEO rankings do not guarantee visibility in AI-generated responses.

AI Does Not Rely Primarily on Your Website

Another major insight was that AI systems gather information from multiple sources, including:

• Wikipedia
• Reddit
• forums
• reviews
• external databases
• community discussions

Only a relatively small portion comes directly from brand websites.

This means that online visibility increasingly depends on a broader digital presence, not only website optimization.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

A central recommendation from the session was that businesses must expand beyond traditional SEO toward what Jesse described as:

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

This means optimizing for:

• AI-generated answers
• chatbot recommendations
• AI search summaries
• conversational product discovery

The strategies for GEO differ significantly from classic search optimization.

AI Is Becoming a Direct Commerce Channel

Jesse also presented examples of major platforms already enabling transactions directly inside AI-powered experiences.

Examples included:

• Booking
• Etsy

These companies are beginning to integrate purchasing directly into chatbot environments, creating entirely new commerce channels.

This gives large platforms an additional competitive advantage over smaller businesses.

AI Is Becoming Critical for eCommerce Visibility

The presentation stressed that AI is not only a productivity tool – it is becoming an infrastructure layer for digital commerce.

AI increasingly influences:

• search visibility
• product discovery
• recommendation systems
• customer journeys
• traffic generation
• buying decisions

This means brands must rethink how they approach online visibility in the coming years.

Jesse’s Advice for Businesses

One of the practical recommendations from the session was:

“Use AI before building AI.”

Instead of rushing to create custom AI products, companies should first:

• understand existing AI tools
• identify real business use cases
• integrate AI strategically
• focus on practical value

Key Takeaways from the Session

The lecture highlighted several major trends shaping the future of AI and eCommerce:

the AI ecosystem is growing at extraordinary speed
AI traffic and adoption continue to rise rapidly
the market remains highly concentrated around a few dominant players
low barriers to entry have created massive AI tool saturation
chatbots are becoming key product discovery channels
AI is fundamentally changing search behavior
traditional SEO alone is no longer sufficient
visibility in AI systems requires broader digital presence
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is becoming increasingly important
major platforms are integrating direct commerce into AI experiences
brands must adapt to AI-driven discovery and recommendation systems
AI should be used strategically to solve business problems, not only as hype

The overall conclusion of the keynote was that AI is no longer simply a technology trend – it is becoming a foundational layer of digital commerce, fundamentally reshaping how consumers search, discover, evaluate, and purchase products online.