Max Sinclair Archives

Lauren Livak Gilbert is the Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, a community of more than 11,000 brands and retailers navigating eCommerce and the digital shelf. She leads research, education, and industry collaboration on emerging commerce trends. Lauren specializes in agentic commerce, product content, citations, measurement, and helping brands turn complex digital shifts into practical strategies that drive customer acquisition and growth.

Max Sinclair is the Founder and CEO of Azoma (formerly Ecomtent), an agentic commerce platform helping brands improve visibility and performance across AI-powered shopping. He leads company strategy, growth, and enterprise partnerships while advising brands on product discovery, content, and conversion across ChatGPT, Amazon Rufus, Walmart Sparky, and Google Gemini. Max also co-hosts The New Frontier: The Agentic Commerce & Answer Engine Optimization podcast.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[1:30] Lauren Livak Gilbert introduces the Digital Shelf Institute and its collaboration with Azoma on agentic commerce research
[2:05] Max Sinclair outlines agentic commerce as a growing leadership and board-level priority
[4:36] What the five C’s framework covers for brands navigating AI-powered shopping
[8:22] How existing digital shelf foundations support the shift toward agentic commerce
[11:13] Lauren explains the need for richer product context and deeper shopper understanding
[17:04] Why citations, trusted sources, and external content influence product recommendations
[24:01] Max and Lauren examine accuracy, misinformation, and brand control across AI platforms
[31:12] Max connects agentic commerce efforts to customer acquisition, conversion, and measurable growth

In this episode…

Agentic commerce is becoming a priority for brands, but many teams are still defining how it fits into their eCommerce strategies. Rather than replacing the digital shelf, it expands how AI systems discover, evaluate, and recommend products. How can brands turn this shift into measurable growth?

Digital shelf strategist Lauren Livak Gilbert and agentic commerce entrepreneur Max Sinclair answer by organizing the challenge around five C’s: completeness, context, citations, correctness, and customer acquisition. Their framework shows brands how to strengthen product data, answer detailed shopper questions, build trust through credible sources, and correct inaccurate information across AI platforms. Lauren recommends treating agentic commerce as an extension of existing digital shelf work while developing a deeper understanding of shopper needs. Max emphasizes monitoring the entire category, identifying the sources AI tools rely on, and connecting visibility efforts to conversion and incremental revenue. Together, their guidance offers a practical way to prepare internal teams, prioritize investments, and measure meaningful business impact.

In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant talks with Lauren Livak Gilbert, Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, and Max Sinclair, Founder and CEO of Azoma, about decoding agentic commerce through the five C’s. Lauren and Max show how brands can improve data completeness, add richer context, strengthen citations, ensure correctness, and drive customer acquisition. They also discuss AI shopping behavior, brand accuracy, and practical measurement.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“When you're thinking about agentic commerce, you need to have the right answers to the questions that your shoppers are asking.”
“So context is providing additional information about your product that someone might be searching for.”
“You have to play by the rules, and I think you can.”
“And within five days, the LLMs were surfacing their brand.com versus the influencer content.”
“You need to be able to understand you've made this change in content, and it's impacted your sales.”

Action Steps:

Strengthen product data completeness: Keeping attributes, feeds, metadata, and product details accurate across channels gives AI shopping tools the foundation they need to recommend products correctly.
Add richer context to product content: Answering the longer, more specific questions shoppers ask helps AI systems connect products to real use cases, needs, and environments.
Monitor and improve citation sources: Understanding which retailer pages, brand sites, media outlets, and communities influence AI results helps brands build trust and improve visibility.
Correct misinformation quickly: Publishing clear, authoritative information on owned channels can reduce inaccurate claims and improve how AI platforms represent the brand.
Connect agentic commerce to business outcomes: Measuring changes in traffic, conversion, revenue, and customer acquisition helps teams prove value and prioritize future investment.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.

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Max Sinclair is the Founder and CEO of Azoma (formerly Ecomtent), which generates AI-powered product content across eCommerce sites. Before founding Azoma, he spent six years at Amazon, where he launched Amazon Business in the UK, Amazon.sg in Singapore, and Amazon Grocery across the EU. Max is also the host of New Frontier: The AI for ecommerce podcast.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[1:22] Max Sinclair introduces Azoma’s mission in AI-driven brand recommendations
[3:19] What is agentic commerce?
[5:00] How AI health agents are changing consumer trust, personalization, and buying behavior
[9:27] Steps brands should take to prepare for AI recommendations and agent-driven shopping
[18:01] The importance of hands-on experimentation for AI learning
[24:41] A future-looking view on world AI models and their potential impact on commerce and media

In this episode…

AI is no longer just influencing how people search; it’s starting to decide what they buy. As intelligent agents take on more decision-making, brands are facing a future where visibility depends less on ads and more on recommendations. How should businesses prepare for an environment where AI chooses on behalf of the consumer?

Max Sinclair notes that agentic commerce is already emerging, driven by AI systems that can analyze multiple data points and make personalized decisions for users. As an expert in AI-driven commerce and digital optimization, he emphasizes that brands must optimize for how AI understands, evaluates, and recommends products, not just how humans search. Max advises moving fast, aligning content across channels, and empowering teams to experiment rather than wait for certainty. The brands that act decisively now can leverage AI-driven recommendations effectively.

In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant chats with Max Sinclair, Founder and CEO of Azoma, about the rise of agentic commerce and its implications for brands. Max shares how AI agents influence purchasing decisions, what companies must do to stay visible in AI search, and why fast organizational adoption will define the winners in 2026.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“It's not truly agentic because it's not taking multiple independent steps.”
“This adoption moves quicker than anyone thinks is even possible.”
“What better way to learn than just to jump into it?”
“Either you…want to be part of it, or you don't.”
“I think we will move in 2026 beyond LM and the large language model.”

Action Steps:

Establish an AI readiness task force: Creating a cross-functional team with executive backing enables faster decision-making and experimentation as AI-driven commerce evolves. This prevents bottlenecks and ensures your brand adapts at the speed of AI adoption.
Optimize content for AI recommendations, not just search engines: AI agents evaluate context, credibility, and narrative consistency across channels. Aligning messaging across product listings, websites, and PR increases the likelihood of being recommended by AI systems.
Empower teams to experiment and learn by doing: Hands-on testing with AI tools builds real understanding faster than training alone. This approach helps teams stay current as AI capabilities and consumer behaviors shift rapidly.
Secure senior leadership buy-in early: Agentic commerce impacts revenue, marketing, and operations, making it a C-level priority. Leadership support ensures resources, authority, and urgency are aligned with the scale of the change.
Act before certainty arrives: Waiting for perfect clarity risks falling behind competitors already adapting. Early action allows brands to learn, iterate, and defend visibility before AI-driven buying behaviors become the default.

About BWG Connect...

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[1:44] Max Sinclair shares how Azoma helps brands appear in AI searches
[7:56] How Amazon’s Rufus and Google’s Gemini have reshaped how consumers search for products
[11:13] Azoma’s methodology for helping brands rank in AI engines through data and personas
[18:17] Refining your LLM and SEO strategy based on AI answer engines
[26:52] The importance of multimodal content in AI search
[32:05] Max’s predictions for AI shopping assistants and how a ChatGPT-Shopify integration could rival Amazon

In this episode…

Traditional search engines are losing their dominance as consumers turn to AI-powered tools for product discovery. This shift challenges eCommerce brands to stay visible in a digital landscape driven by conversational interfaces and personalized recommendations. How can businesses optimize their online presence when search requires context, intent, and interaction?

AI-driven search optimization expert Max Sinclair maintains that brands can remain competitive by aligning their content strategies with the mechanics of large language models. Appearing in AI search results involves more than traditional SEO; it requires crafting semantically rich content that aligns with customer personas, goals, and use cases. Max emphasizes the importance of visual elements, customer sentiment, and AI’s multimodal capabilities, allowing brands to improve visibility and relevance on emerging platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Amazon’s Rufus.

Tune in to this episode of The Digital Deep Dive as Aaron Conant hosts Max Sinclair, Founder and CEO of Azoma, to discuss the evolution of product search in the age of generative AI. Max talks about the rise of conversational and voice-based search, how direct checkout integrations could disrupt traditional online marketplaces, and his predictions for AI shopping assistants.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“ChatGPT is fast becoming a real channel for people to discover products on.”
“Customers that arrive at websites through ChatGPT are much higher intent because they’ve done the research.”
“This is an incredible tailwind… a new opportunity to get ahead of your competitors.”
“We build for the customer a mini digital twin of the AI engine for the topic they care about.”
“Saying the same thing over and over again, a slightly different keyword is an absolute losing strategy.”

Action Steps:

Identify high-intent customer segments: Focusing on buyers who use AI search tools can drive more conversions and efficient marketing. These users often arrive with specific needs and have already done substantial research.
Optimize content for AI search engines: Tailor your content to include contextual details like audience, use case, and buying motivation. This helps large language models understand and recommend your brand.
Incorporate multimodal content strategies: Combine relevant visuals with tailored text to align with how AI models interpret and prioritize information. This approach improves product visibility and user engagement across platforms.
Monitor share of voice and brand sentiment in AI engines: Tracking how often and positively your brand appears can inform strategic content adjustments. These insights help you stay ahead in an evolving digital marketplace.
Engage early with conversational commerce tools: Adopting platforms like ChatGPT shopping or Rufus integration early can secure competitive advantages. Early movers often establish lasting brand visibility in emerging channels.

About BWG Connect...

Max Sinclair is the Founder and CEO of Ecomtent, which generates AI-powered product content across eCommerce sites. Before founding Ecomtent, he spent six years at Amazon, where he launched Amazon Business in the UK, Amazon.sg in Singapore, and Amazon Grocery across the EU. Max is also the host of New Frontier: The AI for ecommerce podcast.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[1:50] Max Sinclair’s extensive background at Amazon and how he founded Ecomtent
[6:55] The rapid surge of generative AI
[10:41] How to optimize AI for content generation
[18:52] Use cases for AI-generated content and AI-powered search
[21:59] The future of search — and how Rufus changes the game for Amazon searches
[29:18] Rufus and the future of SEO
[36:32] What are the barriers to AI adoption?

In this episode…

As content creation becomes increasingly sophisticated, brands rely on AI to produce visual and written product content. Additionally, Amazon’s new AI-powered search engine, Rufus, has created more personalized and in-depth searches, making optimized content essential. How can you adapt to the future of AI-powered search and content?

Amazon’s Rufus AI assistant allows consumers to ask specific questions to receive highly personalized search results. This tool analyzes product copy and images to produce relevant results, so Amazon veteran Max Sinclair recommends refining AI models using data to optimize content for search. Rufus has altered SEO, so rather than ranking for specific keywords, you must adjust your content to accommodate the AI search algorithm, ensuring your products appear in the list of relevant results.

In this week’s episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant speaks with Max Sinclair, the Founder and CEO of Ecomtent, about optimizing product content for Amazon’s AI-powered search engine. Max talks about Rufus’ role in the future of search and SEO, the barriers to widespread AI adoption, and the use cases for AI-generated content and search.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

"I believe that this is going to be the future of search on Amazon."
"I could pretty immediately see how transformational this was going to be."
"We generate the content at speed and scale, and we optimize for Rufus and Cosmo."
"The future is going to look radically, radically different."
"I think the changes will be on that scale where... it's going to have a bigger impact than... the internet did in creating eCommerce."

Action Steps:

Explore and utilize AI-powered tools: Familiarize yourself with platforms such as Ecomtent to generate high-quality, scalable eCommerce content. This helps to streamline content creation processes and addresses the challenge of producing vast amounts of content at lower costs.
Optimize for AI-powered search engines: Understand the nuances of AI-driven search mechanisms like Rufus to ensure your content is well-optimized for these platforms. This step is crucial as it tackles the opportunity to improve search relevancy and personalization, which are becoming central to eCommerce success.
Invest in fine-tuning AI models: Use fine-tuning methods to enhance AI models, ensuring they better understand and generate eCommerce-specific outputs. This is effective because it directly improves content quality, addressing past challenges of AI's inability to produce precise and accurate content.
Prepare for conversational commerce: Begin adopting and adapting to conversational AI technologies to better align with upcoming trends in customer interaction and shopping preferences. This addresses the opportunity presented by the shift toward voice and text-based interactive shopping experiences.
Engage with emerging technologies: Stay updated and experiment with the latest advancements, like AI-generated video content, to stay ahead in the digital content landscape. This proactive approach addresses the ongoing transformation in digital marketing and content delivery, providing a competitive edge.