Public Label Blog

AI & The Digital Shelf

Written by Morgan McAlenney | Jun 20, 2025 3:25:04 PM

Today’s shopper search behavior is no longer confined to blue links or Siri voice queries. Shoppers are turning to generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to ask: What’s the best mouthwash for sensitive teeth? Which eco-friendly laundry detergent actually works?

If your product isn’t mentioned in those answers, you’ve already lost the sale.

As Gemma Spence, Chief Digital Commerce Officer at VML (WPP holding company), put it in her recent piece “If AI Doesn’t Know Your Product, No One Will” in The Drum::

AI doesn’t care about your brand equity unless it’s expressed in the right language, in the right context, through the right data. If your products can’t be surfaced, understood, and recommended by an algorithm? You’re invisible.
The Shopper Journey Is Now AI-Powered

Public Label has long said the traditional path-to-purchase is dead. The shopper journey is fragmented, omnichannel and now increasingly filtered through AI.

Product Data Is Your Brand’s AI Currency

AI is threatening to become the new digital shelf. And that means product discoverability is no longer driven solely by SEO or paid media it’s driven by how well your product info feeds AI.

From title tags to attributes to reviews, every piece of content you upload or fail to determines how (or if) your product appears in AI responses.

Your brand needs to be fluent in AI. If it can’t speak to algorithms, it won’t speak to consumers. The Drum

At Public Label, we call this the Digital Shelf OS: an operating system where PDPs, structured data, and content hygiene are treated as core brand assets not afterthoughts.

We optimize PDPs not just for retailer compliance, but for AI parsing, voice commerce, and algorithmic discoverability across:

  • Amazon
  • Walmart.com
  • Target.com
  • Retail.com aggregators
The TL;DR

AI is not just another marketing channel—it’s the operating system for the new commerce journey.

Public Label helps brands:

✅ Audit AI presence across search tools
✅ Structure content for maximum machine readability
✅ Sync creative, shopper, and ecomm teams around the AI-driven shelf
✅ Convert visibility into real retail lift

Ready to Start?

If your product isn’t showing up in AI answers, let’s fix that. Public Label is the agency for brands who don’t just want visibility—they want conversion.

📧 Contact Morgan McAlenney