This week, we are talking Home Depot’s b-hole reminiscent chatbot and vibecoding JD Vance’s face. Plus—the biggest mystery in American shopping: why does TJ Maxx make people need to poop? Also on tap: Apple’s iPad launch cringefest and a surprising rise in Android smartphone adoption among creatives AND finance bros alike.

• Home Depot's "Magic Apron" and Lowe's "Milo" chatbots launched within hours of each other—proving that every brand now needs an AI assistant, even if they all look the same.
• AI is speeding towards eliminating websites as we know them—future shopping experiences will be conversations, not catalogs.
• Apple's recent marketing attempts are wildly out of touch—trends about trends are dead, but nobody told Tim Cook.
• Are we Pavlov-ing ourselves into using the bathroom at TJMaxx? All signs point to yes
• Vibe coding is taking over—non-coders can now generate functional apps, proving that AI isn’t just summarizing things anymore—it’s building them from scratch.
• [00:01:19] “Eenie meenie miney Milo. Home Depot's chatbot looks like a b-hole.” - Phillip
• [00:55:05] “AI is fundamentally changing the way we interact with software. Convenience is the ultimate aim of technology, and we're just at the beginning of this shift.” - Brian

• In-show mention: Purchase The Lore Journal
• In-show mention: Home Depot Chatbot and Press Release
• In-show mention: TJMaxx Reddit Thread
• In-show mention: Register for Shoptalk Afterparty
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This episode of Future Commerce is brought to you by Future Commerce Plus and our sponsors Omnisend and MotionApp and Keen Decision Systems.

Scripted, mass-produced influencer marketing has sent the internet spiraling toward a dystopian era of “loser-generated content.” Plus, we share key insights from eTail West, a sneak peek into Future Commerce’s Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, and dissect some disturbing internet finds of the week.The End of the World As We Know It

• [04:00] Lemon Balm Tea’s influencer campaign: Meanwhile, on TikTok, a scripted ad for Lemon Balm Tea sparks hundreds of fake testimonials. How many “highest-paid nutritionists” can there really be?
• [14:00] Old men yell at the Cloud: Is the internet dead? TikTok, Twitter, and even LinkedIn algorithms are riddled with bots and unchecked scripted influencer marketing.
• [32:00] The Word of Mouth Index: FC+ and Fairing collaborate on a one-of-a-kind index – available to all FC+ members now.
• [33:00] eTail recap: Future Commerce’s seven sessions included a keynote from Phillip on time capsules and what they represent for commerce and culture. Brian closed out eTail with three sessions in a row on ___
• [35:00] Overheard at eTail: A lot of concern around tariffs, anticipation for Target’s earnings (not looking good), and other fears around national commerce.
• [45:00] Obvi’s viral organic ad: An Arcads.ai employee brags about the efficacy of a recent Obvi TikTok marketing a weight loss supplement. The 14.1-million view video likely drove over five figures of revenue, but critics claim a lack of legality and raise an important question about AI marketing regulation.
• “It’s the grossest way to market.” – Brian
• “Social is bought and paid for and sold.” – Brian
• “The greatest reach I’ve had on Twitter happened when I left a benign comment on Kieran Culkin’s Oscar speech and thirty people made fun of me.” – Phillip
• “Cultural production is downstream of commerce and commerce-driven social discourse happening on the internet.” – Phillip
• “There are two ways people pay attention to things: If they’re funny or if they’re hot.” – Brian

• Insiders: Alex Greifeld’s The End of Outside
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• Steph Liu on X
• Word of Mouth Index - designed in partnership with Fairing
• Barry Hott on X

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We unpack the market reactions from the NikeSkims turnout, the fantastical and terrifying future of gene editing, and Howard Lutnick’s first moves as Commerce Secretary. PLUS: Future Commerce is headed to Shoptalk! Phillip and Brian bring the heat from Palm Springs!

Coming Up: Don’t miss our coverage of Howard Lutnick’s First 100 Days. Follow our show wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe to our weekly newsletters, and join us on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X.

• [:03:00] Howard Lutnick sworn in – twice, for good measure – as Secretary of Commerce. Track his first months in the job, follow our series First 100 Days.
• [09:00] Nike partners with Kim Kardashian-owned brand, Skims, tapping into a new corner of the activewear market.
• [25:00] The Los Angeles Project is the latest bold attempt at gene-editing and foresees a future where “life itself is brought under human design.”
• “There’s so much happening with Lutnick at the helm, and it’s worth keeping an eye on what the expanded responsibilities mean for commerce and beyond.” — Phillip
• “I think Nike is making good moves. I think they're making smart financial decisions, and they're partnering with the right people.” — Brian
• “For everything I’ve ever thought about Kim K, she continues to absolutely defy expectations as the ultimate business person.” — Phillip
• “The first movie studio to get the dragons wins.” — Brian
• “One company has made pigs with 69 gene edits to make their organs more compatible for human transplants... But are glowing rabbits really where we need to go next?” — Phillip

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• Our take on fentanyl czars
• The Senses: I Tried Doji (But It Turned Me Into a Black Man)
• Wired: Your Next Pet Could Be A Glowing Rabbit

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We peer into commerce’s self-driven future and see new frontiers arising for AV-centric city planning, (more) invasive advertisement integration, commerce-based search engines, and Meta mind control. PLUS: Phillip and Brian designate their week’s heroes and villains, and we get excited about the official Adobe x Future Commerce Shoptalk After Party!

• [9:00] News from the week: Shopify earnings, Klaviyo, bird flu, and the latest from Future Commerce.
• [15:30] Autonomous Vehicles Will Redesign Commerce: AVs will create massive changes in urban planning, retail, and logistics.
• [19:00] Amazon’s Next Big Move: The company is now allowing advertisers to drive traffic off-site, signaling its ambition to become the next big search engine.
• [23:00] Ad Takeover: Everything – even your car’s infotainment screen – eventually becomes a surface for advertisement.
• [42:00] Klaviyo’s B2C Event: Klaviyo announces Built for B2C livestream event, happening Thursday 2/20.
• [49:30] Meta Brain: Meta releases research on mind reading via magnetic therapy and AI-assisted analysis.
• [1:05:00] Heroes and Villains: Phillip and Brian’s biggest winners and losers of the past week in commerce.
• “Amazon is about to become the biggest search engine for product discovery. Google should be worried.” — Phillip
• “The Gulf of Fortune, brought to you by Panda Doc.” – Brian
• “We’ve seen heart rates submitted as evidence, truth serums outlawed by the Geneva Convention. I have to believe that things like this are not Black Mirror, but actual legitimate real things that will be used in positive and negative ways. That to me seems scary.” – Phillip
• “I think this is going to be a retooling of the way we think.” – Brian

• Join us at Rivea for the official Adobe x Future Commerce Shoptalk After Party
• Order LORE by Future Commerce on Metalabel
• Fortune: Some Jeep owners are being hit with pop-up ads inside their cars.
• The Age of Agglomeration: Our predictions report from January.
• Netflix Bites (Good luck finding the menu?)

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Commerce shapes the future because Commerce is Culture™.

When does a word become so ubiquitous it loses all meaning? Brian's sudden aversion to "culture" sparks a meandering exploration into the semiotics of commerce, just as Poppy's influencer vending machine saga becomes an unlikely metaphor for marketing's existential crisis. PLUS, we revisit a key moment from NRF 2025.

• [13:30] The Poppi fallout: After being slammed by fans around the globe for an influencer activation, Poppi juggles image repair.
• [23:00] Poppi vs. Olipop: Controversy doubles the audience.
• [29:00] Super Bowl LIX: This year’s game was an underwhelming canvas for Kendrick’s victory and Poppi’s brief downfall.
• [35:00] One of the most impactful ads this year was creator-made, by a Doritos fan.
• [46:00] Big creative is more accessible now than ever, as displayed by big brands like Liquid Death using small but mighty budgets.
• [51:00] On this week’s After Dark episode, we unpack Kanye West’s breakdown and public rage against Ye and Shopify.
• “If you want to get attention, start a war.” – Brian
• “In the last few years, the NFL has become more participatory.” – Brian

• Order your copy of LORE by Future Commerce
• Dan Murphy, SVP of Marketing at Liquid Death on Future Commerce
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Phillip and Brian look into tomorrow’s creator economy, shaped by the role of AI-driven agents in commerce and attention as currency. While rising generations invisibly develop instincts for algorithmic curation, Mr. Beast’s Feastables collect dust in your local Walgreens. PLUS: We bring you along to our NRF panel discussion alongside our friends from BigCommerce.

• Mr. Beast on Colin and Samir: His too many failed sidequests reveal a bigger picture about the viability of creator-led trends in the long term.
• The future of creator-driven consumer trends is agent-driven.
• Gen Alpha is a surveillance generation, and attention as currency is instinctual.
• Commerce is not just a transaction layer but an infrastructure that connects different facets of the digital world, and is the backbone for emerging tech trends.
• [00:07:40] “If the future of the attention economy is agentic…Do creators have some role to play in agent attention?” – Phillip
• [00:08:35] “The creator economy is a form of patronage.” – Phillip
• [00:11:35] “Gen Alpha is a surveillance generation…my children know instinctively that they’re constantly being surveilled. They give negative attention signals to things they don’t like.” – Phillip
• [00:21:10] “There’s going to continue to be bots in the world, and we are going to hate them.” – Brian
• [00:18:00] “The problem with running AI as effectively an API with a brain of its own is that it becomes completely impossible to diagnose when things go wrong. And that’s going to drive people crazy.” – Brian
• [00:22:00] “There's going to be entire categories that emerge just for creators to try to find alpha and arbitrage in the system.” – Phillip

• Mr. Beast, Walt Disney, and the Promise of Payoff
• @Anuatluru on X
• Kiri Masters on Agentic Shopping
• Insiders #184: Coexist: Avoiding Agentic Ghettos

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