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Scaling smarter: How Kibo Commerce’s agentic AI is redefining ecommerce

Q: Who is Ram Venkataraman and what is Kibo Commerce?

Ram Venkataraman is the CEO of Kibo Commerce, a unified yet composable platform for ecommerce, order management, and subscriptions used by complex retailers and B2B brands.

Q: What is agentic commerce at Kibo?

Kibo’s agentic framework includes Engage, Configure, Explain, and Tune—enabling conversational shopping, natural-language configuration, plain-English explanations, and self-tuning optimization.

Q: How does Kibo balance composability and simplicity?

Kibo is both composable and decomposable: brands can start unified for speed, then progressively swap services without a full replatform.

Q: Will LLMs replace commerce platforms?

No. LLMs will behave as another headless client and still require platform APIs or MCP to enforce pricing, promotion, tax, and routing logic.

Q: Where does Kibo partner vs. build?

Kibo partners where it lacks core capability—such as EDI via Orderful for dropship—and builds rapidly with AI where it has domain expertise across ecommerce, OMS, and subscriptions.

Megan Glover

November 4, 2025

Industry interviews

Get the full episode here

TL;DR — What you'll learn:

Why AI isn’t a feature at Kibo — it’s a foundational enabler that changes the cost structure of ecommerce
The four-agent framework: Engage, Configure, Explain, Tune — and how each reduces complexity and time-to-value
How Kibo balances composability and decomposability to give both developer flexibility and business-user productivity
Why Kibo leads with OMS, and how unifying ecommerce + OMS + subscriptions lowers total cost of ownership
How MCP and Google Gemini power conversational setup, explanations, and self-tuning across the stack
Build vs. buy in 2025: partnering for gaps (e.g., EDI via Orderful) and building faster with AI instead of acquiring
Adoption reality: brands start with Engage (customer-facing), with Configure/Explain rising as teams chase operational speed
Ram’s take on LLMs: they’ll act as another headless client, not a full platform replacement — commerce rules still live in the platform

Published by Noibu | The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives
Guest: Ram Venkataraman, CEO of Kibo Commerce
‍‍Host: Kailin Noivo, Co-Founder at Noibu

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube

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AI is a new operating model — not a bolt-on

Kibo Commerce CEO Ram Venkataraman doesn’t treat AI as a widget. He treats it as the backbone of how modern commerce operates.

“AI isn’t a feature—it’s a foundational enabler. The next generation of companies will scale with completely different cost structures than where we are today.”

For CEOs, the challenge is clear: double the business without doubling headcount. That’s the lens behind Kibo’s agentic strategy.

The agentic commerce framework: Engage, Configure, Explain, Tune

At ShopTalk, Kibo introduced an AI framework built on four agents that meet both shoppers and operators where they work:

Engage — A pre- and post-purchase conversational agent on the brand’s site for guided discovery, self-service, and support.
Configure — Say the rule, don’t click the 50 screens. Set up promotions, inventory, and orchestration using natural language.
Explain — Converts logs and rules into human-readable answers: why this order routed, why that promo applied.
Tune — Auto-optimizes the platform to lower operational cost and improve performance.

Under the hood, it’s powered by Google Gemini and orchestrated with MCP, so agents can work inside Kibo or alongside other platforms in a composable environment.

Composable and decomposable: the Goldilocks zone

Kibo is in the MACH Alliance, but Ram cautions that pure “composable” often leans too developer-heavy. Enterprises need business-user productivity on day one—with the freedom to decouple later.

Kibo’s stance: start unified (ecommerce + OMS + subscriptions), then decompose specific services (e.g., search, CMS) without replatforming.

That’s how complex merchants like Ace Hardware, Zwilling, and Al-Futtaim Group simplify operations and cut total cost of ownership.

Build vs. buy in the AI era

With overlapping microservices across ecommerce, OMS, and subscriptions (catalog, pricing, promotions), Kibo prefers build where it has domain expertise and partner where it doesn’t—like embedding EDI via Orderful for dropship.

Why not buy? Because AI accelerates building while M&A slows teams down with integration drag.

Adoption: top-line first, ops second

Today, demand clusters around Engage (customer-facing revenue).

As teams see the time-to-value gains, Configure and Explain adoption rises—shortening setup and troubleshooting from weeks to minutes.

Will LLMs replace commerce platforms?

Short answer: no. LLMs still need to honor complex pricing, promotion, tax, and routing logic.

Think of LLMs as another headless client calling platform APIs (or MCP servers), not a platform substitute.

Search may commoditize, but the commerce brain remains essential.

Ram’s bottom line

Scaling isn’t just about hiring more—it’s about thinking differently.

The next wave of ecommerce leaders will run smarter cost structures powered by agentic AI that drives productivity, personalization, and speed. The winners will treat AI as the foundation for every customer and operational experience.

Noibu’s take: turning insight into uptime (and revenue)

Elite ecommerce teams don’t just add AI—they operationalize it. Noibu uses AI to identify, prioritize, and resolve site issues that quietly kill conversion.

If your mandate is “scale without extra headcount,” eliminating hidden friction is the fastest ROI you’ll find.

💡 Key takeaways for ecommerce executives

Challenge	Ram’s Approach	Strategic Outcome
Scale growth without scaling headcount	Embed agentic AI (Engage/Configure/Explain/Tune) into the platform and business processes	Lower operating cost, faster execution, improved margins
Composable complexity and slow time-to-value	Balance composability with decomposability; prioritize business-user productivity	Unified platform now, flexible decoupling later—no replatforming
OMS, ecommerce, subscriptions in silos	Land with OMS differentiation; expand to unified stack	Lower TCO, fewer integrations, higher reliability
Gaps in infrastructure (e.g., EDI for dropship)	Partner (Orderful) where not core; build faster with AI where core	Speed without M&A integration drag
LLM disruption to commerce	Treat LLMs as another headless client via MCP/API, not a replacement	Future-proofed architecture that preserves complex business rules

Listen to the full episode now

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Ram Venkataraman and what is Kibo Commerce?

Ram Venkataraman is the CEO of Kibo Commerce, a unified yet composable platform for ecommerce, order management, and subscriptions used by complex retailers and B2B brands.

What is “agentic commerce” at Kibo?

Kibo’s agentic framework uses four agents—Engage, Configure, Explain, Tune—to power conversational shopping, natural-language configuration, human-readable explanations, and self-tuning optimization across the stack.

How does Kibo balance composability and simplicity?

Kibo is both composable and decomposable: brands can start unified for speed and productivity, then progressively swap services (e.g., search, CMS) without a full replatform.

Will LLMs replace commerce platforms?

Ram’s view: no. LLMs will act as another headless client and must call platform APIs/MCP to respect complex pricing, promotions, and routing logic.

Where does Kibo partner vs. build?

Kibo partners where capabilities aren’t core (e.g., EDI via Orderful for dropship) and builds rapidly with AI where it has deep domain expertise across ecommerce, OMS, and subscriptions.