Amazon's camera shops while you point

🛠 Tool That's Actually Getting Results

Quack Just Raised $7M to Kill Support Tickets Before They Start

Here's what caught investors' attention: while everyone builds reactive chatbots, Quack built AI that prevents support tickets. Their "proactive agents" scan customer behavior, spot problems brewing, and fix them before customers even know something's wrong.

The backing? $7M from Hanaco Ventures and Storytime Capital, with clients like WalkMe and Yotpo already using it.

The insight: Companies like Artlist report turning support from a cost center into a "true profit center" with Quack's approach. Instead of waiting for angry customers, they're catching issues early.

Your move: If you're spending hours on "where's my order?" and "this isn't working" tickets, test proactive AI that spots patterns and intervenes first.

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 👀 What Just Got Real

Amazon's Camera Now Shops While You Point

Amazon's new Lens Live turns your phone into a real-time shopping scanner. Point your camera at anything — no photos needed — and matching products appear instantly in a carousel. Tap the item you want, add to cart, done.

The wild part: Rufus AI now lives inside the camera view, giving you instant product insights and answers while you scan. It's shopping without the searching.

Why this matters for operators: Your customers are about to expect this level of instant product discovery everywhere. Amazon just trained millions of shoppers to expect real-time visual search with immediate purchase options.

Watch for: The shift from "browse then buy" to "see and instantly purchase." Visual commerce just became the baseline expectation.

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🔢 Data That Changes Everything

91% of AI-Using SMBs Report Revenue Growth

Salesforce surveyed 3,350 SMB leaders and found something that should wake up every operator: 91% of businesses already using AI report revenue growth, while 86% see better margins. Even better — 87% say AI helps them scale operations.

Translation: While you're manually answering support tickets and writing product descriptions, your AI-enabled competitors are banking the time savings and scaling faster.

The gap: 78% of growing SMBs plan to increase AI investment next year, versus only 55% of declining businesses. The divide is already happening.

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📈 Store Doing It Right

How reMarkable Chose AI Over Hiring More Support Staff

When this Norwegian paper tablet company faced soaring customer inquiries, they didn't hire more humans. They deployed Salesforce's Agentforce to handle volume while maintaining their "white-glove experience."

The strategy: AI handles common questions proactively, escalates complex issues with full context to human experts who can focus on actual problem-solving instead of repetitive queries.

Why this worked: Instead of overwhelming their team or reducing service quality, the"Amazon's camera shops while you point"y maintained premium support while scaling efficiently.

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🔥 Trend That's Accelerating

"Agentic AI" Means Your Tools Start Acting, Not Just Responding

Move beyond basic chatbots. Agentic AI doesn't wait for commands — it takes initiative. By 2029, analysts expect agentic AI to handle up to 80% of common support tasks, but the bigger shift is proactive problem-solving.

What this looks like: AI that monitors your inventory levels and automatically reorders before stockouts. AI that detects frustrated customer behavior and intervenes with personalized offers before they abandon. AI that spots product page issues and fixes them without human input.

The timeline: By 2028, one in three enterprise software platforms will include agentic AI capabilities, making this mainstream faster than most operators expect.

Start thinking: What problems could AI solve before they hit your desk?

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🚀 Edge Signal Worth Watching

Miva's Vexture Uses Natural Language to Merchandize Your Store

PWhile most AI tools focus on chat, Miva launched Vexture — AI that lets you describe your merchandising strategy in plain English and instantly generates product recommendations across your entire catalog.

How it works: Tell the AI "highlight sustainable products for eco-conscious shoppers" or "push high-margin items to repeat customers" and it automatically creates personalized product flows.

Why this matters: Most operators lack the time or team to create sophisticated merchandising rules. Natural language AI that can execute complex product strategy could level the playing field against bigger teams.

Watch for: AI that turns business strategy into automated execution without requiring technical setup or complex rule-building.

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There’s no shortage of AI newsletters out there — but I couldn’t find one made for small and mid-sized eCom operators. So I built the kind of thing I’d want to read. Hope you get something useful out of it.

Thanks for reading.
Catch you next week!

Nicholas Hoddevik
CEO, apparel brand Kattnakken
Editor, BeyondTheCart