By Steve Merrill, Founder of WRKNG Digital — October 19, 2026
Before you sign with any Shopify agency pitching "AI commerce" help, ask them these eight questions and listen for specifics. The good ones will tell you exactly what they touch, which AI platforms they track, and what they refuse to promise. The rest will talk about being the future of search and hope you don't ask twice.
I've sat through a lot of these pitches. Most sound great until you ask how they measure anything. So here's the list I'd use.
1. How do you measure AI visibility?
A real answer names a baseline and a tracked metric, like how often your store gets mentioned or cited across a set of buyer questions, measured monthly. If they can't show you a before number, they can't show you progress. Vague talk about "being everywhere in AI" is the tell.
Ask to see a sample report from another client with the brand name blacked out. If none exists, they've never measured this before.
2. Do you touch my product feed and structured data?
The honest answer is yes, because AI assistants read structured product data, not your pretty hero images. That means clean titles, descriptions, availability, and valid Product schema markup. Google's own product structured data guidelines spell out the fields that matter, and Shopify exposes most of them through the product details you already fill in.
If an agency only wants to write blog posts and never mentions your feed, walk. The feed is where the buying happens.
3. Which AI platforms do you track?
They should name them. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and increasingly AI-driven shopping surfaces, each tracked separately because each one sources answers differently. Google reported that AI Overviews now reach more than a billion users, so that surface alone matters for a store.
A single number that "covers all AI" is made up. These platforms don't share a ranking.
4. How do you report citations and mentions?
You want to hear the difference between a mention and a citation, because they're not the same thing. A mention is the model naming your brand. A citation is the model linking to your page as a source. Perplexity, for example, shows its sources on every answer, so citations there are countable.
Good reporting shows both, tracks the trend, and ties it to specific buyer questions. Screenshots with no dates don't count.
5. Is my store ready for agentic checkout?
Agentic checkout is when an AI agent completes the purchase for the shopper, and it's moving fast. Shopify and OpenAI already rolled out a path for buying inside ChatGPT, described in the Buy it in ChatGPT announcement. A capable agency can tell you whether your catalog, inventory data, and checkout meet the requirements.
If they've never heard of it, they're selling you last year's playbook. This is the part that actually moves revenue.
6. What will you refuse to promise?
This is my favorite question, and the best answer is a list. A trustworthy agency refuses to promise a guaranteed mention, a specific citation count, or a fixed spot in any AI answer, because none of that is in their control. We don't promise specific results. We promise what our team will actually do.
An agency that promises everything is the one that delivers nothing. Run from the guarantees.
7. Who writes the content, a human or a model?
The straight answer is usually both, and that's fine, as long as a human edits for accuracy and voice. What you don't want is a firehose of unedited AI text, because that's exactly what the models already discount. Ask how they fact-check and how they keep your brand from sounding like a template.
I've seen stores buried under 200 generic posts that no assistant ever cited. Volume is not the strategy.
8. What happens to the work if I leave?
You should own your content, your schema, your feed improvements, and your reporting data when the contract ends. A good agency says so plainly and hands over the files. If the "AI visibility" lives only inside their private tool, you're renting, not building.
Ask it before you sign. The answer tells you how they think about your business.
How did we choose this list?
I built this from the pitches I've reviewed and the questions that separate a real AI commerce partner from someone chasing a trend. Each question targets one thing an agency can either prove or fake: measurement, product data, platform coverage, reporting, agentic readiness, honesty, content quality, and ownership. I weighted the list toward what protects your money, so the questions about promises and ownership sit as heavy as the technical ones. Every item is something you can ask in a first call and judge on the spot.
FAQ
What is AI commerce for a Shopify store?
AI commerce is when shoppers find, compare, and sometimes buy your products through AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI instead of a normal search and click. For a Shopify store it means your product data and content need to be readable by those models, not just by people.
How much should an AI commerce engagement cost?
Most legitimate Shopify agencies price this as a monthly retainer tied to a defined scope, often a few thousand dollars a month. Be careful with any flat fee that promises a ranking or a mention, because no agency controls what a model says.
Can an agency guarantee my store shows up in ChatGPT?
No. No agency can guarantee a mention or a citation in any AI assistant, because the output is generated and changes constantly. A good agency promises the work it will do and the metrics it will track.
Want help vetting your own setup before you hire anyone? See how we handle AI commerce at WRKNG Digital's agentic commerce page and bring these eight questions with you.
