AI Shopping Agents Enhance Shopify Sales

Author

Ryan Howard
May 17, 2025

AI Voice News: This Week’s Insights

🔊 Soundcheck

  • AI shopping agents boost Shopify sales

  • FBI warns of AI voice scams targeting officials

  • Twilio and Microsoft team up to boost conversational AI

  • AI voice agents expand across gaming and retail

Read time: 5 minutes

🔥 Hot Mic

Big moves, deep dives, and standout stories.

AI Shopping Agents Enhance Shopify Sales

Bluecore’s new AI agent, alby, is now live on Shopify, helping retailers deliver personalized shopping experiences at scale. Brands like Plushbeds, WAYB, and DENALI Electronics report higher engagement and conversion rates after integrating the assistant.

Alby runs 24/7, supports multiple languages, and delivers instant answers to customer questions using product data and brand guidelines. Plushbeds says alby handles 6,000 product queries a month, engages 15% of site traffic, and converts 5x higher than average.

This aligns with a larger trend of AI-driven commerce tools, helping Shopify sellers compete with giants by offering intelligent, human-like support at every step of the purchase journey.

Key Points:
• Bluecore's 'alby' AI agent now available on Shopify
• Early users report major gains in engagement and conversions
• Alby provides multilingual, real-time product support
• Enhances competitiveness in modern e-commerce

Takeaway: AI agents like alby are transforming how online stores serve customers, offering always-on, high-converting assistance that levels the playing field for independent retailers.

The FBI is warning the public about scams involving AI-generated voice and text messages that impersonate senior U.S. officials. These campaigns use smishing and vishing to steal sensitive information.

Victims are tricked into revealing credentials via hacker-controlled platforms, with the FBI noting a rise in the sophistication and reach of these attacks.

Key Points:
• AI-generated voices used to impersonate U.S. officials
• Smishing and vishing tactics target personal data
• Number of affected individuals not disclosed

Takeaway: AI voice tech is now a tool for cybercriminals—making vigilance and stronger identity verification more critical than ever.

Twilio and Microsoft are joining forces to push conversational AI into the enterprise mainstream. The collaboration links Twilio's customer engagement tools with Microsoft's Azure AI stack to create scalable AI agents and virtual assistants.

This partnership supports AI copilots and multi-channel automation tools for over 10 million Twilio developers and Microsoft’s enterprise clients.

Key Points:
• Strategic partnership targets large-scale conversational AI
• New AI tools to be built on Azure AI Foundry + Twilio
• Emphasis on developer access, enterprise integration, and compliance

Takeaway: This alliance underscores the accelerating pace of enterprise-grade AI solutions designed for complex, multi-platform engagement.

🎙️ Mic Drop

What else is making noise in voice AI.

  • Analysts optimistic on Twilio-Microsoft’s AI partnership (Seeking Alpha)

  • Epic Games launches AI voice Darth Vader in Fortnite (ScreenRant)

  • Gemini powers Darth Vader with conversational AI (Droid Life)

  • Early version of AI Vader shocked players with profanity (Ars Technica)

  • Fast-casual chains explore AI voice for upselling (Franchise Times)

  • Auribus launches DAW-integrated AI voice platform (Mix Online)

  • AI voice seen as key to enterprise ROI (UC Today)

  • Market report: AI voice cloning trends through 2034 (Whatech)

  • FBI: Hackers mimic US officials using AI voice tech (ITPro)

  • Phishing attacks now include deepfake voice messages (PCWorld)

  • FBI: AI voice messages targeting officials’ contacts (KLFY)

  • Security risk grows as hackers impersonate officials (WION News)

  • FBI urges vigilance around AI-generated scams (Tribune PK)

  • SoundHound AI investment under scrutiny (The Globe & Mail)