Every brand at Shoptalk this year is talking about AI, but most are still figuring out the difference between deploying it and actually making it work. Beth Shero, CEO and Co-founder of Shero Commerce, caught up with Deepan R, Head of Revenue at Richpanel, Griffin Houlihan, Partnerships Manager at Richpanel, and Liz Nord, Solutions Engineer at Shopify, on the show floor.
The conversation surfaces a sharp distinction between automating tickets and genuinely reducing them, and why SEO fundamentals matter more in the age of AI, not less.
In this episode
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Why automating 70 to 80% of support tickets is only part of the Richpanel story, and what the other part means for your team's revenue impact
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How brands are approaching AI with guardrails rather than going all in, and why that's the smarter move right now
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The SEO misconception Liz Nord is correcting at every Shoptalk meeting, and why dropping your SEO fundamentals could cost you in AI search
Watch the episode on YouTube
Episode highlights
Richpanel's proposition at Shoptalk was simple but pointed: most help desks are built around ticket management, but Richpanel is built around reducing tickets altogether. Deepan explained that their AI help desk is helping brands automate 70 to 80% of support volume, freeing agents to focus on retention and upsells rather than reactive firefighting. The goal, as Griffin Houlihan put it, is for customers to find what they need through self-service without having to reach a human in the first place.
The AI conversation on the Shoptalk floor was charged but cautious. Both Beth and Deepan noted that brands are excited about AI while still nervous about it, and the consensus was clear: guardrails matter. Rather than deploying AI freely, the brands getting it right are managing and controlling it to protect both their technology and their brand reputation. The appetite is there. The question is whether the implementation is.
Liz Nord's session on GEO and SEO cut through one of the louder misconceptions of the moment. The idea that SEO no longer matters because AI is taking over search is, in her words, the furthest thing from the truth. SEO fundamentals are precisely what determine how brands show up in AI and large language model results.
Beth echoed this directly, sharing that a brand's eCommerce manager had told her that same week that SEO had no value anymore, something both found alarming given how foundational it remains to discoverability across every channel.