How Adobe Is Building AI and Agentic Tools for Brands—While Keeping an Eye on Actual Adoption

Why It Matters

AI‑generated traffic converts at higher rates, so Adobe’s tools give brands a competitive edge in capturing this lucrative segment and shaping the future of e‑commerce interactions.

Key Takeaways

• AI‑driven retail traffic rose 393% YoY in Q1 2026.
• Adobe introduced Brand Concierge and LLM Apps to surface brands in LLMs.
• CX Enterprise enables composable agentic AI across brand systems.
• Adobe prioritizes Model Context Protocol; Agent Communication Protocol adoption lags.

Pulse Analysis

The rapid rise of AI‑powered search is reshaping online retail. Adobe’s data shows a 393% jump in AI‑originated visits to U.S. sites during the first quarter of 2026, and those visitors are not only more numerous but also more valuable, delivering higher conversion rates than traditional traffic. Marketers are therefore racing to make their brands discoverable within large language models, a shift that blurs the line between search engines and conversational assistants.

In response, Adobe unveiled several products at its recent Summit. The enhanced Brand Concierge uses AI agents to embed chat‑based shopping experiences directly on brand sites and apps, while LLM Apps in Adobe Experience Manager let brands create native experiences inside LLM interfaces such as ChatGPT. CX Enterprise adds a composable layer, offering a catalog of agent skills that can be mixed and matched to automate campaign planning, audience segmentation, and other marketing functions. Partnerships with OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic further extend these capabilities, positioning Adobe as a central hub for brand‑centric agentic AI.

Adobe’s strategy also reflects a pragmatic view of emerging standards. The company is doubling down on the Model Context Protocol, which enables agents to tap external tools, while adoption of the Agent Communication Protocol remains modest. By focusing on the protocols that show real‑world uptake, Adobe aims to deliver immediate ROI for brands while keeping its roadmap flexible for future standards like Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol. This measured approach could set the pace for how the broader e‑commerce ecosystem integrates agentic AI, balancing innovation with proven utility.