eCommerce CRO, AI and Automation Opportunities in 2026

I’ve just returned from a five-day (no wifi) break on Heron Island.

Loads of baby turtles, mummy turtles, sharks, stingrays and about 100,000 birds.

Also, with that quantity of birds comes a lot of bird poo.

So if that’s still meant to be good luck, I’m expecting to win the lotto this year without even buying a ticket.

Anyway.

Now that I’m back in civilisation and have Wi-Fi again, it’s time to fire up the newsletter for 2026.

Here’s what’s on the agenda this year:

• More CRO optimisation tips, tactics, resources and A/B tests

• More AI and Automation

Why the AI and automation focus?

At the end of last year, we sent a questionnaire to the brands we work with to understand how they’re using AI.

Here’s what most teams are doing with AI:

• Copywriting (nearly everyone)

• Customer service replies

• A bit of Image and video creation

ChatGPT and Gemini are still the two tools used most often.

And here’s what they’re barely doing:

• Automation

• Data analysis

• Personalisation

(Even though many already have tools that can do these things)

The big fears?

• Accuracy (top concern by a mile)

• Privacy (some teams are locked down to “approved tools” only)

• The learning curve (nobody wants to waste time learning tactics that will be outdated in 6 months)

Why I think we can help

Last year, I had a “what are we doing?” midlife crisis moment about AI at Blend.

Not in a dramatic “sell everything, and move to Thailand” way.

More in a “we’re wasting time and brain power” way.

Following “the moment”, here are a few things we changed inside Blend:

1. We documented the boring bits

The repetitive stuff.

The admin.

The “why am I still doing this every day?” tasks.

Then we started automating them, one by one.

The goal isn’t “use more AI”.

The goal is “do less nonsense”.

And focus our brainpower on the valuable work for our clients.

2. We built a knowledge base

All our A/B tests, case studies, past newsletters, resources, reviews and testimonials in one place.

Then we built it into an MCP and connected it to OpenAI, allowing us to chat with our own knowledge, as if it were a team member with a photographic memory.

No more re-reading documents, digging through our Google Drive or hunting through Monday boards.

It saves us hours of admin every week.

3. What’s in progress?

My lips are sealed (for the next 24 hours).

I’ll share tomorrow 🙂

In the meantime, if you want to help shape what I send you this year?

Reply to this email with the things you wish you could automate, or what you wish AI could help with inside your business and role.

Chat soon,

Peter