From Clicks to Conversations: How MCP Will Redefine the Future of Retail
Online shoppers don’t wake up wishing for fewer clicks between them and checkout. They wish for ease, trust, and to feel understood.
Until recently, the idea that a shopper could describe what they wanted in plain language, get curated options, and complete a purchase all inside a single artificial intelligence chat window felt like a pipe dream. Model context protocol (MCP) is making this possible.
Launched by Anthropic in late 2024, MCP allows AI agents to maintain context, execute transactions, and interact across systems in real time. In simple terms, it gives AI the ability to connect with payments, inventories, logistics, and customer accounts to drive the shopper’s experience from A to Z. With MCP technology, shoppers can chat with an AI agent that can recommend, transact and resolve — all without breaking the flow of conversation.
For shoppers, this shift is a game changer. Instead of bouncing between search results and various retailer websites, they’ll simply describe what they want in chat, get curated recommendations, pay instantly, and move on.
To make this a reality for shoppers, MCP requires an ecosystem — one that's quickly coming together. Major players including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft have announced they're adopting MCP. Visa is embedding it into payment flows and Mastercard has announced “Agent Pay.” PayPal now lets customers check out directly from Perplexity chats.
The shift is here. MCP is shaking up the entire retail industry. The only question is how quickly retailers will lean in.
Raising the Bar on Customer Experiences
Today, consumer expectations are higher than ever. Shoppers expect instant answers, easy returns, and real-time updates. Freshworks’ 2025 Customer Service Benchmark Report shows how quickly retailers are having to adapt:
- More than half of retail inquiries last year were resolved by AI agents alone.
- First responses are now measured in seconds, not hours.
- Resolutions that once took several days are now handled in under one hour.
In-chat commerce is quickly transforming the entire shopping journey. Imagine buying a jacket without ever opening a browser tab: you ask for options, get curated recommendations, choose one, and pay instantly — all in the same chat. And if it doesn’t fit, that same conversation could also process your return.
By removing friction across these touchpoints, AI makes shopping feel more natural and human. It becomes less about managing transactions and more about having a trusted associate guide you from start to finish.
What Retailers Should Consider Doing Now
While it may take time for MCP to reach mass adoption among retailers, smart retailers won’t wait until the infrastructure is fully in place. They’ll use the agentic AI solutions available today to prepare their organizations, data, and customer experiences for what’s next. A few priorities stand out:
- Start small, but start now. Introduce agentic AI into high-impact areas such as order status updates, FAQs, or returns. This creates immediate wins and customer satisfaction while building a foundation for broader adoption.
- Make your AI sound like you. Ensure your AI reflects your brand’s tone, values and style so customers experience consistency whether they’re in-store, online or in chat.
- Uncomplicate the journey. Where are you making customers click too many times, repeat themselves, or wait too long? Simplify and untangle the process now to ease the adoption of conversational shopping in the future.
- Keep human touch where it counts. AI can handle routine tasks, but customers still want a person when the stakes are high. Empower associates to focus on complex, loyalty-building moments.
Looking Ahead
The real story isn’t about platforms, payments or protocols. It’s about people. Customers yearn for experiences that are faster, simpler and more human.
The retailers that lean in now will set the standard — uncomplicate the journey and keep humans at the center of the moments that matter.
The future of commerce isn’t about replacing people with technology. It’s about making every interaction more personal, intuitive and human.
Mika Yamamoto is chief integrated customer growth officer of Freshworks, a provider of cloud-based tools for customer relationship management, IT service management, and e-commerce marketing.
Mika Yamamoto joined Freshworks in November 2023 as chief customer and marketing officer. Mika’s global experience leading diverse teams has focused on transforming organizations to scale growth. She joins us from F5, where she was executive VP and chief customer engagement and marketing officer. Prior to joining F5, she served as global president of Marketo, becoming SVP and general manager of Marketo at Adobe after it was acquired. Mika previously served as chief digital marketing officer and CMO of SMB for SAP. In addition, she has held senior leadership roles at Amazon Books, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Stores, Gartner, and Accenture. She holds a B.A. in commerce with a focus on economics and marketing from Queen’s University in Canada and serves on the boards of BlackLine, the Rainier Valley Food Bank, and the United Way of King County.
