Best AI Tools for Business in 2026: Powering The Future of E-commerce Growth

According to Exploding Topics, the global AI market is valued at nearly $ 3,000 billion. AI is no longer just a domain for tech giants; it has become a key enabler for every business, from small startups to large-scale companies.

This article will guide you through what AI tools for business are, why you need AI, the best tools for each department, and how to choose and apply them effectively.

AI Tools for Business

AI tools for business are software or platforms that use artificial intelligence (machine learning, NLP, predictive analytics, etc.) to automate, support, or optimize business processes. These tools can perform data analysis, create content, make recommendations, process natural language, or intelligently interact with customers.

Types of Popular AI Tools in Business

AI tools can be classified by function:

• Productivity & task management tools

• HR & Recruitment tools

• Marketing & Content creation tools

• CRM & Customer support tools

• Analysis & Strategic decision-making tools

AI adoption is reshaping every aspect of modern business

New trend: “AI inside” platform

A new trend in 2025 is the “AI inside” platform. That is the main platform (such as management tools, site builders, CRMs) that integrates AI to support users right in the main experience.

For example, Shopify Magic, ClickUp Brain, GemPages AI Image-to-Layout are all features being promoted.

Why Does an E-commerce Business Need AI Tools?

Businesses need AI tools because they help increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve data-driven decision-making.

• Increase productivity & save money: Employees who use AI for routine tasks can work more efficiently. According to one study, productivity in daily tasks can increase by 66% thanks to AI.

• Make smarter decisions with data: AI helps e-commerce businesses predict trends, detect anomalies, and suggest optimal strategies instead of relying on subjective experience.

• Get ahead of your competitors: While most e-commerce businesses are just experimenting with AI, only about 5% of companies actually create tangible value from their AI projects, according to Businessinsider. It means if you get it right, you have a chance to get ahead of your competitors.

How to Choose The Best AI Tools for Business

Choosing the right AI tool not only helps businesses save costs but also improves operational efficiency by automating repetitive processes. Here are 6 considerations when choosing an AI tool for your business:

1. Clarify your business goals and problems

Before choosing any AI tool for business, ask yourself: “What problem do I want to solve?” and “Where can AI help?”. No matter how powerful a tool is, it becomes useless without a clear purpose.

For example, if you are spending hours every day creating a sales page for your store, it is a sign that you need a page builder tool that supports generating a layout from an image. Identifying the “pain points” of the process helps you narrow down the type of tool to look for, instead of wasting time testing aimlessly.

2. Test the tool before you commit

Once you’ve narrowed down a few potential candidates, take advantage of free trials. Getting your hands on a tool will help you assess its practical fit, including the interface, features, and output quality.

For example, if you need a brand image, try out several AI design tools to compare style and quality. This will help you understand how well the tool fits into your internal processes before you commit.

3. Check the reputation and community reviews

Trials only scratch the surface of a tool. To get a better idea of its long-term effectiveness, learn from real users’ reviews on independent platforms like Shopify, Trustpilot, or Reddit. Feedback on stability, technical support, and scalability will be more authentic than testimonials on websites.

Case studies are also helpful. For example, a logistics company might share how it reduced order processing time by 30% with an AI ERP automation tool, giving you a more concrete view of the real value.

Check community feedback before choosing your AI tool

4. Evaluate training and customer support

A study by IBM (2023) found that businesses with a robust user training policy increased their AI adoption by 53% compared to those without. Even the best tool is useless if your team doesn’t know how to use it, so choose tools that have detailed instructions, training materials, or an onboarding process.

Additionally, testing support channels such as chatbots, email, or user communities is also the key to helping you troubleshoot issues quickly.

5. Compare pricing models based on usage frequency

In a business, cost is always important, but don’t let low prices fool you. A “pay-as-you-go” model is appropriate if you are only experimenting with AI on a small scale, while a monthly subscription plan helps you save more money if your business is using it regularly.

For example, GemPages offers flexible plans that cater to different modules and usage frequencies. If you are a small business experimenting with AI-powered landing page building, the basic plan will give you access to the features you need in a reasonable way. Meanwhile, if you are expanding your e-commerce operations, GemPages' higher plans allow advanced features such as AI generated content and unlimited AI Image-to-Layout sections, providing a long-term value that outweighs the cost. Consider your actual needs, compare the price with the specific benefits to find the optimal option for your business.

6. Check the scalability

Since your business grows, your AI tools need to grow with you. AI tools that limit users or the amount of content created per day can quickly become a “bottleneck” in the expansion process. Therefore, look for tools that can integrate with existing systems (CRM, ERP, Marketing Automation, etc.) and have a suitable upgrade plan for the growth phase.

Best AI Tools for Task Management

AI tools for task management have the ability to “learn” from user behavior and automatically suggest solutions to organize your work more effectively. 

A quick look at the top 5 AI Tools for Task Management

1. Motion: The Most Comprehensive AI Task Manager

Motion - The most comprehensive AI task management software

Motion stands out with its ability to automatically schedule and prioritize tasks based on deadlines, importance, and the user's personal schedule. Motion's AI continuously learns work habits to adjust the optimal schedule, helping to reduce meeting time or missed deadlines by up to 30%.

Key features:

• Automatically schedules and reprioritizes tasks based on deadlines and workload.

• Learn your productivity patterns to suggest the best time for deep work.

• Syncs seamlessly with Google Calendar and project management tools.

Motion is best for busy startups, freelancers, or small teams looking to optimize daily productivity and reduce calendar chaos.

2. Notion AI: Information management combined with smart AI notes

Notion - The AI workspace that works for you

Notion AI turns note-taking and project management into a smarter experience, including automatically summarizing meetings, creating to-do lists from text, and suggesting project structures. This is a suitable choice for creative teams or content managers.

Key features:

• Summarizes notes, generates action lists, and refines content automatically.

• Integrates seamlessly with Notion databases and templates.

• Assists with brainstorming, project briefs, and meeting summaries.

Notion AI is best for creative teams and startups that manage both project planning and documentation in one place.

3. ClickUp AI: Support for team productivity analysis

ClickUp Brain - The only AI that works while you work

ClickUp AI can analyze the work performance of each member and suggest ways to optimize time, especially useful for marketing or technical teams.

Key features:

• Auto-generates project updates, progress reports, and summaries in seconds.

• Suggests task priorities based on workload and impact.

• AI writer for meeting notes, content briefs, and OKR summaries.

ClickUp AI is best suited for medium to large teams across marketing, tech, and operations that need centralized automation and insight-driven task management.

4. Todoist AI: A personal assistant that automatically prioritizes tasks

Todoist AI - The world’s #1 to-do list app

Todoist AI helps individuals or freelancers organize tasks by importance, based on work context and actual work schedule.

Key features:

• AI predicts completion times and auto-prioritizes key tasks.

• The “AI Task Assistant” generates optimized daily schedules.

• Natural language input for faster task creation.

• Works across devices for seamless personal and team productivity.

Todoist is best suited for individuals or small teams who value simplicity and automation without complexity.

5. Asana Intelligence: Integrating AI into traditional project management platforms

Asana - AI that understands your business and moves work forward

Asana has just launched the “Asana Intelligence” feature with the ability to summarize project progress, suggest next actions, and automatically assign people in charge based on workload.

Key features:

• Predictive analytics identify productivity gaps before they happen.

• Automates task assignments based on team performance data.

• Offers workflow insights with real-time dashboards.

Asana Intelligence is best suited for medium to large businesses seeking enterprise-grade automation and intelligent workflow management.

Best AI Tools for E-commerce Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) in e-commerce requires two things: centralized customer data and quick responses, and AI tools enable both. Today’s AI CRM platforms go beyond just storing interaction history to predict behavior, automatically classifying and routing conversations to the right person at the right time, increasing the likelihood of closing deals and retaining customers.

A quick look at the top 3 AI Tools for E-commerce Customer Relationship Management

Botpress: The Complete AI Agent Platform

Botpress - The complete AI Agent Platform

Botpress lets you build smart chatbots without code to automatically answer FAQs, track orders, handle returns/exchanges, and suggest products. Botpress’s strength is its customization and data control (especially the self-hosted or enterprise versions), and it has a free plan to get started. The downside is that advanced configurations can require technical knowledge and integration costs for complex use cases.

Key features:

• No-code chatbot builder with drag-and-drop conversation flow design.

• Automates customer support tasks like tracking orders, handling returns, or recommending products.

• Uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand intent and respond naturally.

Botpress is best suited for e-commerce stores needing  scalable, multilingual customer support automation without heavy development costs.

HubSpot CRM AI: AI-powered CRM Software

HubSpot - AI-Powered CRM Software

HubSpot is a CRM platform that syncs customer data, automates workflow, and uses AI to make customer care recommendations, score leads, and optimize key messages. 

Key features:

• Centralizes all customer interactions across email, chat, and forms into one timeline.

• AI suggests next best actions, predicts churn risks, and scores leads automatically.

• Integrates seamlessly with marketing campaigns to boost retention and lifetime value.

• Automates repetitive workflows such as follow-up emails and data entry.

• Offers advanced analytics and customizable dashboards for team performance tracking.

However, since the need for advanced features or large data volumes expands, costs can increase significantly.

HubSpot is best suited for growing ecommerce stores looking for a unified CRM that supports both marketing and customer care automation.

Kustomer: Unleash The Power of Data + AI + Humans

Kustomer - Powering exceptional service at every touchpoint

Kustomer provides a timeline that shows all customer interactions from email, chat, SMS to social media, giving agents full context to respond quickly and accurately. The platform combines automated routing, conversation classification, and real-time dashboards to monitor support team performance.

Key features:

• Provides a single timeline view for all customer touchpoints (email, chat, SMS, social).

• AI-driven conversation classification and auto-routing to the right agent or workflow.

• Advanced analytics dashboard to measure support performance and sentiment.

Kustomer is suitable for businesses with a large number of channels that need to consolidate data to serve customers quickly and personalized.  

Best AI Tools for E-commerce Marketing

In the digital age, e-commerce brands cannot rely on feeling or manual campaigns. AI marketing tools are helping businesses automate processes, analyze customer behavior, make decisions based on data, and optimize campaign performance in real time.

A Quick Look At The Top 3 AI Tools For E-commerce Marketing

HubSpot: All-in-One Marketing Platform

HubSpot remains the most powerful marketing automation platform for e-commerce. HubSpot's strength is the seamless integration between marketing, sales, and CRM, which helps e-commerce businesses not only attract new customers but also optimize Customer Lifetime Value. For example, HubSpot's AI can detect customer groups with a high propensity to repurchase, thereby automatically sending incentive campaigns to trigger second conversions.

Key features:

• Create blogs, emails, and social media posts in minutes with AI Content Assistant. 

• Automatically analyzes customer behavior data to suggest appropriate campaigns for each stage in the funnel.

• Seamlessly integrate between Marketing - Sale - CRM.

HubSpot is best suited for E-commerce businesses that need a comprehensive marketing automation system.

Buffer: AI-powered Social Media Management

Buffer - The AI-powered social media management platform

For e-commerce stores, Buffer brings great value in its ability to maintain brand consistency across multiple channels, such as Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest, where AI can automatically adjust content to suit user behavior on each platform.

Buffer analyzed 1.2 million posts across platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, comparing AI-assisted and non-AI posts. The median engagement rate for non-AI posts was 4.82%, while the AI posts were 5.87%, equivalent to a ~22% increase with AI support.

Key features:

• Write captions, suggest hashtags, analyze tone of voice.

• Optimize posting time based on real-life interaction data.

Buffer is best suited for omnichannel brands and stores want to maintain consistent brand identity and optimize social media performance.

GemPages: Build Your High-converting Page with AI

GemPages - Build your high-converting page with AI

While HubSpot and Buffer focus on customer acquisition and engagement, GemPages is the final piece of the puzzle. These tools support converting visitors into actual revenue.

GemPages is an AI-powered Shopify Store Builder that allows sellers to create landing pages, product pages, or sales funnels with just drag and drop – no coding needed.

With AI, GemPages expands this capability even further, with advanced features such as:

• AI Image-to-Layout: Automatically generate an editable layout from a reference design image.

• AI-generated content: It allows Shopify store owners to instantly create high-quality AI content tailored to their products, goals, and brand voice.

The biggest difference of GemPages is the flexibility in customization and the ability to seamlessly integrate with other tools such as HubSpot, Klaviyo, or Google Analytics - helping marketers have a complete ecosystem to operate the entire marketing funnel on Shopify.

Conclusion

In 2026, AI is no longer a trend, it’s the foundation of successful business. From marketing automation to customer support, the suitable AI tools for business can unlock efficiency, accuracy, and growth that manual work simply can’t do. AI is transforming e-commerce at record speed. The earlier you adapt, the faster you grow.

FAQ About AI Tools for Business