Enterprise commerce has always been a high stakes juggling act. Global supply chains, multi-level approvals, and large volumes of transactions put constant pressure on human teams. Every misstep can ripple across operations, affecting everything from customer satisfaction to financial performance.
Enter the Agent AI. This new wave of autonomous systems provides a way to act in context, make decisions, execute operations at scale, and turn complexity into something more manageable.
PWC research shows that adoption is already widespread. 79% of business leaders report that their organization uses AI agents with a certain level of capabilities.
VTEX, a digital commerce platform for enterprise brands and retailers, is one of the companies deploying the technology to streamline complex operations.
Newsweek Illustration/Canba/VTEX
“Agent commerce is the next stage in an enterprise system. Intelligent infrastructure that interprets contexts makes decisions and actions governed by autonomy at scale,” says Mariano Gomide De Faria, founder and co-CEO of VTEX. Newsweek.
Unlike traditional automation, these systems are designed to act more independently while following corporate policies, allowing companies to move their daily tasks away from human teams.
A PWC survey found that 66% of companies employing AI agents reported increased productivity, 55% increased decision-making speed, and 54% improved customer experience.
Autonomous Agent in Action
VTEX deployed three specialized AI agents through customer service, storefront updates and data insights.
“VTEX Agent AI manages key features such as resolving customer service requests, enriching product catalogs, running multivariate tests in campaigns, and highlighting where operational delays and margins are at risk,” says Gomide de Faria.
The company's customer service agent builds on the capabilities of the company's WENI AI acquisition in 2024, autonomously resolves tickets across WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and web chats, and handles inquiries such as order status, returns, catalog clarification, subscriptions, account changes.
Gomide de Faria said it has already handled about 92% of the standard requests without human input.
“Enterprise commerce never stops. Consumers and corporate buyers expect personalization, sourcing teams need compliance, and the amount of customer service continues to increase,” he said.
Human teams can intervene through only complex cases and focus where resources are really needed. Quality is maintained through governance that ensures transparency and accountability, training in company policies, and audit trails.
The Visual Editor agent is designed to streamline storefront updates. Marketing and local leads can implement changes directly using natural language prompts or Figma files without the need for IT intervention.
“In reality, marketers or local leads can encourage in-store changes without submitting tickets. Agents read the catalog API, apply brand templates, and publish updates within governance rules,” explained Gomide de Faria.
This allows marketing, sales and engineering teams to work in parallel, benefiting from engineering protective structures, marketing driving representations, and faster sales execution.
Finally, the company's Data Insights agent shows a broader trend. It's about moving from a static dashboard to an AI system that brings the next step to the surface. This emphasizes which accounts prioritize, pointing to campaigns that could drive revenue efficiently, and flagging areas where margins are slippery. For global companies, exposure to tariffs and compliance changes can be modeled and active adjustments in pricing, inventory and routing can be made.
“It shows not just how the categories were executed, but which accounts are prioritized. Which campaigns leak the lowest friction and the margins are leaking,” says Gomide de Faria.
The system reflects the general goals of enterprise commerce AI: accuracy, speed and adaptability.
“Accuracy builds trust by allowing you to explain every move. Speed makes commerce competitive. Adaptability guarantees resilience to shocks. Together, VTEX AI agents allow companies to move from past reports to adjust their next best move in real time,” he said.
Tackling the complexity of B2B
Large business-to-business (B2B) transactions present unique challenges. Orders with hundreds of line items, custom pricing and multi-level approvals can overwhelm your legacy system.
Gomide de Faria mentions the biggest blockers not only outdated technology but also infrastructure such as monolithic enterprise resource platform platforms and spreadsheet-driven workflows that cannot manage the complexity of modern enterprises.
Clients such as Stanley Black & Decker rely on VTEX to streamline bulk ordering and contract prices, reducing manual effort and error rates across the distributor network.
Garmide de Faria said Newsweek Another client, Bisco Industries, said, “We have built a B2B market with over 4 million products and created a joint commercial ecosystem that connects large buyers and suppliers.”
Observability, governance, and scalability are increasingly emphasized to ensure that orders of all sizes are executed accurately and intricately.
AI as a strategic partner
Like many enterprise AI initiatives, these agents are in a position to complement human teams rather than replacing them. By automating repetitive tasks, Agent AI allows employees to focus on higher value decisions, strategies and cross-team collaboration.
“What we're starting to see is that Agent AI connects teams across functions and helps marketing, sales, supply chain and finance see the same operational truth in real time,” says Gomide de Faria. “Different features gain common flow ency in data and workflows, enhancing alignment and decision-making across the enterprise.”
Agent AI is emerging as the potential next step in enterprise commerce, blending automation with human decision-making. Throughout customer service, marketing and B2B procurement, AI is responsible for shocking human decisions while automating everyday tasks, providing actionable insights and maintaining surveillance.
In a PWC survey, nearly three-quarters of executives expect AI agents to offer a competitive advantage within next year, highlighting why enterprise leaders are increasingly investing in these technologies.
Additionally, the technology could handle more complex operations as businesses continue to embrace Agent AI across customer service, marketing and procurement.
“For the next 12 months, AI agents will expand from agent customer service to catalog governance, real-time pricing adjustments and supply chain orchestration,” he said.
