NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At NRF 2026, Crescendo announced the launch of its Multimodal AI Shopping Assistant on the Shopify App Store, with chat-to-order conversion rates as high as 58% — roughly four times the industry benchmark of 5-15%. The result transforms chat from a support cost center into a primary revenue channel, as the same AI that resolves questions can seamlessly guide customers to the right product in the moment.
The AI Shopping Assistant will be demonstrated live at NRF 2026 at Crescendo’s Booth 1744.
“We went into the holiday season expecting Crescendo to help with volume, but it ended up doing much more than that,” said Emilio Latorre, SVP of Operations at Lovepop. “Using a single AI chat for both customer questions and product discovery led to stronger shopper conversion and larger baskets for those customers who chatted with us. Customers started with vague requests like ‘something for my mom’ and left with the perfect card in their cart. It didn’t feel like a bot — it felt like talking to someone who genuinely understood what they needed.”
For years, retailers have treated customer service and sales as separate motions, in part because high-quality service was expensive and sales-focused engagement risked derailing the support experience. Crescendo’s AI Shopping Assistant delivers a breakthrough that removes that tradeoff. Powered by its multimodal AI technology, the same Assistant can answer service questions and guide shoppers toward purchase — all within the same conversation.
Turning Conversations into Commerce
By unifying service and shopping into a single AI-driven experience, Crescendo’s AI Assistants increase engagement, improve Average Order Value (AOV), and directly tie conversations to measurable revenue outcomes.
- Combined sales and service AI: A single multimodal assistant resolves customer service questions and guides shoppers to the right product, driving higher engagement and conversion.
- Faster time to value: Deploy an AI assistant in minutes, with automatic updates and built-in measurement of conversion and AOV, directly in Shopify.
- Seamless human handoff: Complex moments escalated to Crescendo’s superhumans without losing context.
- End-to-end insights and attribution: See what customers ask, where they hesitate, and what they would like to purchase, with full visibility into sales and AOV influenced by AI.
- Real-time knowledge management: Keep product, policy, and inventory data current via MCP/API integrations as catalogs evolve.
“Consumers don’t distinguish between ‘service’ and ‘sales’ — they see one brand and expect one connected experience,” said Matt Price, co-founder and CEO of Crescendo. “In the past, companies limited engagement because they had to choose between helping and selling. In the age of AI abundance, that tradeoff disappears. Crescendo is the only platform proven to handle both in a single, connected conversation, and the results speak for themselves.”
The Crescendo Multimodal AI Shopping Assistant is now available on the Shopify App Store, allowing brands to set up their AI experience in minutes: https://apps.shopify.com/crescendo. For more information, visit us at NRF 2026 at Booth 1744.
About Crescendo
Crescendo is the first AI-native contact center, built to deliver peak CX performance in the AI era. While others sell seats, licenses, or hype, we tie our success to business outcomes. Our platform combines the world’s smartest, auto-tuning AI with multilingual “superhuman” experts, ensuring every interaction is fast, accurate, and empathetic. Unlike legacy service providers or bolt-on AI, Crescendo delivers peak performance in weeks, not months. From rapid deployment to predictable outcome-based pricing, we help enterprises scale effortlessly while preserving quality. In a world of overpromise and under-delivery, Crescendo guarantees outcomes that others only talk about. Learn more at crescendo.ai.
Media Contacts:
Sylvie Tongco, Head of Communications, sylvie.tongco@crescendo.ai
LaunchSquad for Crescendo, crescendo@launchsquad.com
