I did not expect one of the more intriguing AI shopping experiences I've seen lately to come from HP. Yes, the computer and printer company. I got a demo of HP's new AI-powered shopping site, which completely redesigns itself in real time based on a customer's voice or text prompts. I've seen startups building toward this future, but few retailers doing it in-house. What worked, what didn't, and what it could mean for e-commerce in the latest @ReadTheAisle: readtheaisle.com/p/exclusive…

Longtime @stratechery reader, first-time talker. It was a real treat to nerd out on all things Amazon, Walmart, e-commerce--and of course, Muse and the personal agent craze--with @benthompson this week. stratechery.com/2026/an-inte… We also discussed the life and death of Recode, and my conviction that my new publication @ReadTheAisle will be the last job of my career. Hope you take a read, and then consider subscribing here: readtheaisle.com/join

My daughter writes the thank-you notes for subscribers to @ReadTheAisle's most premium tiers. She picks what it says as well as the text colors, which in this case may have had something to do with me telling her that the subscriber was a big Knicks fan. That's our whole subscriber experience team. I'm mostly a one-guy shop with some outside help in key places (what's up, sponsorship king @ajfrucci!), and I'm proud of it. Yes, different subscribers want different things from independent journalists and creators. But I think authenticity is something just about everyone is attracted to, especially in this age of AI-everything. For me, authenticity can mean weaving a little anecdote into a newsletter about a roadtrip to Cleveland to watch the Knicks (win) with my son. It can mean incorporating more of my opinion into a reported piece when I feel I have deep expertise on a topic that can back it up. Or it can mean letting my daughter help out the way she wants to, by handling the thank-you notes. If you just want your own custom thank-you card like the one below, or you actually work at the intersection of AI and commerce and want to learn some relevant new stuff each week, you can subscribe to The Aisle here: readtheaisle.com/join. The subscriber experience team has been asking about a raise...

A little more than a year ago, Daydream launched a website and app meant to give online fashion shoppers more nuanced, personalized help through an AI-powered conversational search interface. Last week, just 13 months later, the venture-backed startup that has raised $50 million announced it has branched out into building the same experience for shoppers on other brand and retailer shopping sites like Alice + Olivia and STAUD. My first reaction was that this move into enterprise must be a pivot and that the consumer business must not be working out. But in an interview last week, founder @juliebornstein pushed back on that suggestion. "This is not a pivot," she said. "We're really committed to the consumer business, and, as hard as it is, we really believe in it." The consumer business does have a long way to go, having attracted 1.5 million unique visitors to its website and app over the past year. Instead of a pivot, Bornstein and team are betting that the B2C business strengthens the B2B business, and vice versa. It's part of a thesis that one of Daydream's main backers, @kirstenagreen of @ForerunnerVC, laid out a few months ago: that AI startups today can build both sides simultaneously much sooner than consumer giants like Amazon and Google years ago. I dive deeper into this move in my latest issue of @ReadTheAisle here: readtheaisle.com/p/powered-b… As always, would love to hear what you think.

Prime Day is Wirecutter's Super Bowl. It's also arriving at a moment when AI shopping tools are threatening the affiliate model that makes Wirecutter work. So I asked the product-review giant's EIC about this, the "blizzard of bullshit" facing online shoppers today, and much more in my latest in @ReadTheAisle: readtheaisle.com/p/wirecutte…

In this week's @ReadTheAisle newsletter, I cover OpenAI drama, outraged Amazon sellers...and me getting dressed by an AI. Stitch Fix's Vision tool generated this image of me using real inventory, and calibrated to my style profile (which, yes, I need to work on). But the real story I covered is the Stitch Fix comeback story underneath it. Full breakdown--plus OpenAI and Amazon seller news--in this week's newsletter 👇

SEO for AI—or AEO—is having a moment Profound just raised at $1B valuation But after talking to many brand leaders this week, most agree much of the hype in the space is outpacing results & no dashboard does the work for you. My latest @ReadTheAisle readtheaisle.com/p/aeo-vendo…