AI Agent · Apple · Google · TechCrunch AI
The man who built Apple’s stores doesn’t buy Silicon Valley’s bet on AI shopping
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While Silicon Valley is spending billions to make AI agents shop for them, the man who pioneered Apple’s retail stores thinks the industry is overestimating how much of shopping people will hand over to machines, and believes physical stores will continue to thrive.
Key facts
- Ron Johnson, 66, has heard predictions about the demise of physical retail
- Some of those bets are revisited in Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple’s Genius, Johnson’s new book about building Apple’s retail operations alongside Steve Jobs
- After leaving Apple, Johnson took over J.C. Penney in 2011 with an ambitious plan to reinvent the struggling department-store chain
- Google is making that push with its Universal Commerce Protocol, a standard designed to help AI agents take consumers from product discovery to checkout
Summary
Ron Johnson, 66, has heard predictions about the demise of physical retail before. “AI is a new technology that will improve the online shopping experience,” Johnson said in an interview. Johnson’s view comes as some of the world’s biggest tech companies are trying to push AI deeper into shopping, betting that agents can automate more of how they find and buy items, a concept commonly called agentic commerce. Asked whether he could imagine someone letting an agent choose and buy a $1,000 or $2,000 laptop without ever visiting a website or store, Johnson was unequivocal: “Honestly, nobody’s going to do that.”