September 15th, 2025: The Future is Less If Then And More Prompts, Agents, and MCP - A SVP Looks to the Future

Written By Rick Watson

The Watson Weekly podcast is sponsored by Rithum

Hey Watsonians.  If you’re in commerce, I wanted to speak to you about an event that you will not want to miss. Rithum LIVE, happening September 25th in New York City and October 9th in London, brings together top brands, retailers, and industry leaders for a full day of insights on the future of commerce. Learn more at www.rithum.com/nyc

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It’s September 15, 2025  and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!

We have a special episode of the podcast this week. Today we preview a new podcast from RMW Commerce — actually a Youtube Exclusive, called “Oh Shift! Where SaaS Meets AI”.

In this week’s episode, I interview the Shailesh Kumar, the SVP Of Engineering at Salesforce Commrece Cloud to talk about the company’s approach and pilots in the world of AI and Model Context Protocol or MCP.  To be clear, this is not any kind of sponsored interview.  It’s just an exploration of how the platforms - and I have asked them all to come on the program - are approaching AI and MCP, and what implications it has for brand and merchants.

Take a listen.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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September 22nd, 2025: Google and Paypal Announce New Commerce Partnership, Andy Jasy Fireside Chat With Andy Jassy at Amazon Accelerate Conference, and The First Q4 Holiday Predictions Appear
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September 8th, 2025: Shopify Betting Big on Design, Amazon Still Stuck Muddling Through Day 2, Why Software Sales Is Still Hard in 2025, A New Podcast where SaaS Meets AI: Oh Shift