By Steve Merrill, Founder of WRKNG Digital | September 23, 2026
The AI shopping world runs on jargon that makes simple ideas sound complicated. Here are the ten terms you'll actually run into, in plain English.
Know these and most of the noise starts making sense.
1. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Optimizing to get cited in AI answers, not just ranked on a results page. The goal is being the store an assistant names.
2. Structured data
Code that states your facts in a machine-readable way. Price is price, brand is brand. It's how AI reads your catalog without interpreting your copy. Google explains it here.
3. Agentic commerce
Shopping done by AI agents on a person's behalf, from browsing to checkout. The agent picks; the person approves.
4. Product feed
The structured file listing your products and their attributes. AI shopping reads the feed before your page, so its quality decides a lot.
5. GTIN
A global product identifier, like a UPC. It lets AI match your item to the wider catalog it already trusts.
6. Citation rate
How often an AI assistant names your store when asked about your category. Think of it as the new ranking.
7. AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated answers at the top of search that resolve queries on the page, before any click.
8. Grounding
When an AI ties its answer to real sources it can cite. Grounded answers favor stores with readable, trustworthy data.
9. ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)
A standard from OpenAI and Stripe that lets agents act on trusted product and checkout data.
10. Machine-readable
Information a program can parse without a human. Text a cursor can select, not a fact baked into an image. If it's not machine-readable, AI can't use it.
Further reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AEO in ecommerce?
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing your store to be cited in AI-generated answers rather than only ranked on a search results page. The goal is to be the store an assistant like ChatGPT or Perplexity names when a shopper asks for a recommendation.
What does machine-readable mean for a product page?
It means information a program can parse on its own, text you can select with a cursor, structured data, a price in the HTML, as opposed to a fact baked into an image or loaded by JavaScript after the page. If key facts aren't machine-readable, AI assistants can't use them to recommend you.
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is shopping carried out by AI agents on a person's behalf, from browsing and comparing to checkout, with the person approving the final purchase. It relies on structured, trustworthy product and checkout data, which is what standards like the Agentic Commerce Protocol are built to provide.
Want to know if AI assistants can actually find and recommend your store? Get a free AI-visibility read on your Shopify store at WRKNG Digital. We show you exactly what ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI see when they look at your products.
