I see Profound’s MCP evolution as a meaningful shift for Marketing Engineers. It now connects agents to a knowledge graph and adds 15 new capabilities built around how marketing teams actually work.
For retailers, I believe this demands a serious reframe. Answer engines are already shortlisting products and shaping purchase decisions long before shoppers ever land on retail or ecommerce websites. That compresses the shopping funnel and makes traditional search less reliable as the primary channel for customer acquisition.
Instead of waiting for shoppers to arrive through search, I need to think about how retailers can be recommended throughout the entire shopping journey. That means understanding how people use answer engines for Christmas gifting, how brands earn mentions and citations in relevant AI responses, and how visibility can be maximized across AI search experiences.
I see this report as a practical edge for retailers preparing for the next holiday cycle. It uses real shopper behavior from Christmas 2025, analyzed through Profound’s AI visibility lens, to show how people are using AI to shop for the holidays.
Most importantly, it turns those insights into actionable takeaways. By understanding where answer engines influence discovery, comparison, and purchase decisions, I can see how ecommerce teams should optimize product visibility before the 2026 season ramps up and compete more effectively for the AI shelf this Christmas.
Inspired by this post on Try Profound Blog.
