QBurst

AI is changing how customers search. Are retailers ready for how that changes the customer journey?

Balaji Yellavalli, Chief Growth Officer at QBurst, discussed at RetailClub AI Festival why retailers are investing in preparing their digital assets for agentic and semantic search.

The challenge goes beyond being discoverable. Retailers need to ensure that customer journeys remain connected, relevant, and true to the brand—while turning AI-driven intent into meaningful action.

Because being discoverable is only the beginning. The real opportunity is to make sure the journey that follows still works.

As AI agents take on a greater role in the customer journey, one question becomes increasingly important: how do retailers scale AI without losing consumer trust?

Balaji Yellavalli, Chief Growth Officer at QBurst, shared his perspective at RetailClub AI Festival on why trust will remain central as retailers move from experimenting with AI to putting it to work across customer experiences.

The opportunity is not simply to deploy more AI, but to build experiences that customers can understand, trust, and continue to engage with.

As AI takes on more of the journey, trust becomes part of the experience itself.

When AI becomes part of how customers discover products, what does it take for a brand to be chosen?

At RetailClub AI Festival, Balaji Yellavalli, Chief Growth Officer at QBurst, explored the challenge retailers face in an era of abundance: becoming a curator of choice.

As product discovery increasingly begins with AI assistants, brands need to think about how they get surfaced, considered, and ultimately chosen—and how customer intent can translate into action without losing the brand experience along the way.

For retailers, the challenge is no longer simply being present in the customer journey. It’s about staying relevant at the moments that shape consideration and choice.

The AI conversation in retail is changing.

At RetailClub AI Festival, Balaji Yellavalli, Chief Growth Officer at QBurst, explored how the discussion is moving beyond tokens, models, and infrastructure toward a more fundamental question: how can AI translate customer intent into business outcomes?

The focus is shifting from building technology for technology’s sake to designing solutions around real business needs, and turning intent into action, conversion, and revenue.

It’s a shift from asking what AI can do to asking what it can change for the business.