Adobe Summit 2022: AI Commerce Features and Partner Expansions

Adobe Summit 2022 delivered a powerful vision for the future of Adobe Commerce. Beyond the typical roadmap updates and product announcements, the summit underscored Adobe's strategic commitment to embedding artificial intelligence throughout the commerce stack and expanding the ecosystem of integrated partners.

For merchants and agencies, the implications are significant: the platform is moving decisively toward intelligence-driven commerce, with major logistics, retail and payments partners now woven directly into the platform fabric.

AI-Powered Search and Recommendations

The headline for many attendees was the deepening of AI capabilities within Adobe Commerce. Adobe Sensei, the platform's AI engine, is now delivering:

• Intelligent search: Natural language processing that understands customer intent, not just keywords. Searches for 'warm winter gear' now surface relevant products instead of literal keyword matches.
• Smart recommendations: Product recommendations driven by real-time behavioural data, purchase history and predictive models. The system learns and improves continuously, increasing average order value and conversion rates.
• Personalisation at scale: Content, pricing and promotions can now be tailored to individual customer segments in real-time, without requiring manual curation for every variation.

These capabilities address a fundamental challenge: how to help customers find what they want faster and deliver a more relevant shopping experience. Early adopters report measurable uplift in conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

FedEx Integration: Transforming Logistics

One of the most anticipated announcements was the deep integration between Adobe Commerce and FedEx. This partnership brings several practical benefits:

• Real-time shipping rates: Accurate rate quoting at checkout, reducing cart abandonment due to shipping surprises.
• Unified label generation: Print FedEx labels directly from Adobe Commerce order management, eliminating manual data entry.
• Tracking and proactive notifications: Customers receive tracking information automatically and can opt-in to delivery updates, reducing support inquiries.
• Returns management: Simplified reverse logistics with automated return label generation and tracking.

For merchants with complex, multi-location fulfillment operations, this integration removes friction and reduces human error. The result is faster order processing and better customer communication.

Walmart Marketplace Integration

Adobe Commerce merchants selling on Walmart Marketplace now have native, bi-directional integration:

• Unified inventory: Manage Walmart and direct-to-consumer inventory from a single dashboard. Stock levels sync automatically, preventing overselling.
• Order synchronisation: Walmart orders flow directly into Adobe Commerce, consolidating fulfillment workflows.
• Unified reporting: View performance metrics across channels in one place, making it easier to understand which channels drive the most profitable sales.

For brands with omni-channel ambitions, this integration removes a significant technical barrier. Merchants can now confidently expand to new channels without building and maintaining custom APIs.

PayPal Integration Enhancements

PayPal integration has been reimagined for the modern commerce landscape:

• One-click checkout: PayPal customers can now check out with a single click, reducing friction and boosting conversion rates.
• Buy now, pay later: PayPal's financing options are now surfaced directly in checkout, expanding payment choice and supporting larger basket values.
• Enhanced fraud detection: PayPal's machine learning models now protect Adobe Commerce merchants from fraud whilst maintaining frictionless checkout.

For merchants processing international transactions, PayPal's multi-currency and cross-border capabilities are now more accessible than ever.

The Bigger Picture: Composable Commerce

These announcements point toward a larger architectural shift. Adobe Commerce is evolving from a monolithic platform into a composable ecosystem. Merchants can now build custom storefronts using modern frameworks (React, Vue, Next.js) with headless APIs, plug in best-of-breed tools for search, recommendations, payments and fulfillment, and scale specific capabilities independently of the core platform.

This flexibility is revolutionary for large, complex merchants who need to differentiate in specific areas whilst relying on proven solutions elsewhere.

What Merchants Should Do Now

If you attended Adobe Summit 2022 or are now learning about these capabilities:

• Audit your current tooling: Are you using best-in-class solutions for search, recommendations and payments? If not, the new integrations may offer a more cost-effective path.
• Evaluate your channel strategy: Are you ready to expand to Walmart or other marketplaces? The integration removes a significant technical barrier.
• Assess logistics complexity: Does FedEx integration solve a real pain point in your order fulfillment workflow? For many multi-location operations, it does.
• Plan for AI and personalisation: How will you use AI-powered search and recommendations to improve customer experience? This is no longer a nice-to-have — it's becoming table stakes.

The Strategic Opportunity

Adobe Summit 2022 revealed a platform that is ambitious, increasingly intelligent, and deeply integrated with the partner ecosystem that supports modern commerce. Merchants who can leverage these capabilities thoughtfully will find themselves with a significant competitive advantage.

At Tom&Co, we're excited about the direction of Adobe Commerce and what it means for our partners. The platform is becoming more powerful, more integrated and more intelligent. The question is not whether to embrace these capabilities — it's how to prioritise them for your specific business.

Want to discuss how these new capabilities could benefit your business? Let's talk.