Next-level transformation: How the Otto Group shapes AI Commerce with an AI-first mindset

“The feeling of a new beginning is similar, only more intense”, said Petra Scharner-Wolff, CEO of the Otto Group, to a journalist recently asking if the beginning of the AI age reminds her of the rise of e-commerce in the 1990s. Indeed, while new technologies have always had transformative impact on retail, this new era brings the next major transformation.

AI is already deeply integrated into our everyday life – online retail being no exception. Salesforce data from Cyber Week 2025 shows AI and agents influenced 20% of all global online orders – $67 billion in sales in a single week. (1)

These numbers show: By leveraging the technology to its full potential, AI Commerce offers unseen possibilities to inspire customers.

The Otto Group has a proven track record of transformation, having navigated every major disruption in retail history, from print catalog to digitization, from brick-and-mortar to platform economy. Today, it is the largest online retailer of European origin, serving about 42 million customers worldwide.

Petra Scharner-Wolff knows that the AI transformation is not merely a technological one: “Agentic Commerce is the single biggest disruption to retail since the advent of e-commerce. But technology is never  the real challenge. Mindset is. The companies that will lead this disruption are not those with the biggest AI budgets – it will be those that build a genuine AI-First culture.”

To successfully manage this new transformation, and indeed shape the future of retail, the Otto Group adopts a truly AI-first mindset, moving beyond individual capabilities to fundamentally reshape processes, ways of working, and operating models.

The approach is built on three strategic pillars:

• AI adoption & AI-first mindset: Building central AI competencies through adoption and enablement formats incl. AI Thought Leader Programs in high-impact areas. A multiplier approach with AI ambassadors and an AI-focus in hiring and performance reviews strengthens AI skills and literacy.
• AI-first processes: Following a “Reshape” approach, processes are redesigned end-to-end with an AI-first lens. This can lead to significantly higher efficiency gains than simply optimizing existing processes with AI.
• Agentic AI vision: Clear strategic framing for all Group companies – each assessed and positioned to adapt, transform, or strengthen based on AI readiness and market position.

This evolves how decisions are made through human-AI interaction, redesigning roles and organizational structures for effective human-AI collaboration and ensuring leadership actively champions and embodies AI-first working methodologies.

The goal is not to simply “deploy” AI as a technology and use it within workflows to optimize individual tasks and business processes, but to “reshape” the business by transforming and redesigning workflows to create end-to-end processes driven by tech and AI. Only in this way, the full potential of AI becomes available.

This ambitious vision is strongly supported by strategic partnerships, such as the long-standing collaboration with Google. At a recent press conference at Google's Mountain View headquarters, where Petra Scharner-Wolff outlined the Otto Group's AI-first mindset, Carrie Tharp, GTM COO & VP Customer Experience, Google Cloud, underscored this vision for AI: “We are moving past an era where AI simply served as a passive search tool, shifting instead toward systems that can independently solve complex problems. The real impact happens when a retailer connects these intelligent agents across their entire business.”

This collaboration is already yielding tangible results for AI in e-commerce: Several use cases, such as the new AI assistant by OTTO that creates a truly conversational online shopping experience, are powered by Google technologies. Partnering up provides the Otto Group with early access to latest technologies before they hit the market and foster co-development of new solutions, securing a significant strategic advantage in the evolving retail landscape.

The “Reshape” approach is not merely a vision of the future, but already becoming reality in the Otto Group, as an innovative use case from Bonprix shows: With VestiFlow, the European fashion brand establishes an AI-first, end-to-end solution, redesigning the entire lifecycle of fashion product development – from trend and market analysis to content production. Carolin Klar, Managing Director Product, Sourcing & CR at Bonprix, is convinced of its potential for the business: “With VestiFlow, Bonprix is fundamentally reshaping a core process of its fashion business model – from creativity to production – through an AI-first lens. This initiative demonstrates how we foster innovation and enhance customer relevance by reimagining traditional methods."

VestiFlow value across all steps of product development. Currently, a pilot of VestiFlow is underway at Bonprix: Beginning with “Discovery & Insights”, AI is used for an automated analysis of market, trend, and performance data to identify new fashion product ideas. In the “Assortment Fit”, AI generates a proposal for the allocation and prioritization of products and fashion trends, including a brand and assortment fit check. The “Product Design” is then supported by AI through these market signals as well as the historical performance of comparable products. In further iterations, VestiFlow will also include AI-supported creation of detailed technical specifications, tendering and supplier selection as well as product description and image and video production.

The end-to-end AI use case was developed in close collaboration with Otto Group One.O, the Otto Group company for strategy consulting and technology. Katrin Behrens, CEO of Otto Group One.O, says: “An AI tool on top of existing steps changes little. At Bonprix and One.O, we are uniting three critical elements within one cross-functional team: process reshaping, AI engineering, and agile integration. With Bonprix, we are rebuilding product development end-to-end, ensuring a single trend signal flows seamlessly into assortment, design, and content without interruption."

This holistic method and the diverse AI applications that are already implemented demonstrate the Otto Group's strategic use of AI to both inspire customers and enhance operational efficiency across its portfolio. And it is part of a bigger picture: With a strategic mid-term investment of €350 million in Tech and IT the Otto Group is laying the foundation for the AI commerce era – ensuring long-term future viability through responsible, human-centered AI in retail.

© Fotocredit: Otto Group