Why does Mena Wouters warn against 'scaling chaos' with AI?

Mena warns that AI will scale your existing system. If your foundations (data, inventory, content) are messy, AI will simply scale those inefficiencies rather than creating growth.

Expert Perspectives

Episode 120

Bazaarvoice: Why AI will scale chaos without foundational health

Q: What is the difference between inventory availability and viability?

Mena Wouters explains that availability is having stock, while viability is having that stock in the right regional node to fulfill the customer promise effectively.

Podcast

Mena Wouters

Vice President, Growth Office – Retail & Commerce Client Strategy & Insights

In this episode we talked about:

Why AI amplifies existing operational problems instead of fixing them
How to audit inventory, content, and fulfillment readiness for agentic commerce
Why PDPs are now bottom-funnel validation, not discovery tools
How agentic search changes content strategy and product data requirements
Why stacked AI and transaction fees threaten retailer margins
What realistic AI ROI looks like versus overhyped “magic employee” claims
How cross-functional ecommerce accountability prevents misalignment and lost conversion
Why foundational discipline is the real competitive advantage in 2026

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube

Episode highlights:

[01:07] Mena’s career journey

[02:04] The biggest mistake retailers make

[02:59] Why AI can scale chaos if your ecommerce foundations aren’t healthy

[05:07] Rethinking PDPs as AI changes how consumers discover products

[08:32] The margin problem: who pays when AI becomes a transaction channel

[15:38] Why ecommerce leaders must rely on cross-functional partners to succeed

Mena’s bottom line: Don’t try to outgrow your problems by chasing the next shiny AI tool. If your foundations—inventory nodes, data structure, and core content—are broken, AI will only help you fail the customer faster. Focus on "viability," align your cross-functional partners with shared KPIs, and ensure your site is a place of confidence, not just a list of products.

Mena Wouters — Transcript

The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives • Human-Reviewed Transcript

[00:00:00] Mena Wouters: My pet peeve is having availability but not viability, and that translates into lower consumer confidence in your brand. How do you dig into the right inventory node to make sure that you've got the right inventory in the right place?

[00:02:02] Mena Wouters: A common denominator is ownership—who is going to own accountability and revenue of your ecommerce engine? That is common across both retailers and brands.

[00:03:20] Mena Wouters: AI can be fantastic for scaling content, but it’s going to scale things ineffectively if your system is not in a good spot. Your foundations need to be clean. Is your inventory in a good spot? Is your availability in a good spot? If not, you're going to scale in the wrong way.

[00:05:02] Mena Wouters: We end up in a situation where PDPs are just a gut check to validate a purchase. Consideration is happening on other platforms. Consistency is going to be key—drawing that silver thread through all those experiences.

[00:08:24] Mena Wouters: Fees from platforms like OpenAI are going to be a challenging conversation. Retailers have tight margins. If you add a 4% transaction fee on top of payment gateways, who pays? The brand? The retailer?

[00:12:55] Mena Wouters: Availability vs. Viability impacts repeat purchase. If you say you have it, but you don't have it in their region, you've undone everything you tried to do with AI in the first place.

[00:15:30] Mena Wouters: Ecommerce is not something you can take full control of without your cross-functional partners. You need 'one throat to choke' for revenue, but you're not going to be successful if you don't have a relationship with supply chain or merchandising.