66-year-old Ron Johnson, who pioneered Apple’s retail structure, does not agree with the view that technology companies’ vision of AI-powered shopping will reduce consumers’ interest in stores. Johnson said AI will improve the online shopping experience, but may not change the way people shop.
Johnson joined Apple in 2000, established the company’s retail business and helped build its network of physical stores. While Google aims with the Universal Commerce Protocol to enable AI agents to manage the process from product search through payment, OpenAI is also turning ChatGPT into a shopping platform where users can research and compare products and, in some cases, make purchases.
However, Johnson said he does not believe consumers will authorize an agent to select and purchase a $1,000 or $2,000 laptop entirely on their behalf. According to Johnson, buyers will want to see the computer’s weight and screen and choose the appropriate size themselves. AI can narrow down the options, he said, but it cannot replace physically experiencing the product. He believes agents will make customers who come into stores more informed.
Johnson said Apple stores were designed not only to sell products, but also to let customers try them, learn how to use them and receive support when they encounter problems. He also addresses this approach in his new book, “Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple’s Genius,” in which he describes the process of establishing Apple’s retail operations with Steve Jobs. He argued that competitors copied Apple’s store design and Genius Bar-like practices but overlooked Apple’s real strengths: its employees and its relationship with customers. He said Apple employees’ not working on commission reduced sales pressure and enabled them to focus on customers’ actual needs.
After Apple, Johnson took the helm of J.C. Penney in 2011, but left the position after sales declined in less than two years. He later said his mistake was applying a startup approach to a transformation project. Enjoy Technology, which he founded, filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and Asurion acquired most of its assets.
Despite his doubts about AI’s impact on shopping, Johnson is optimistic about the technology. He believes Steve Jobs would also have embraced it, but would not have allowed it to replace human intuition.
Why it matters
At the center of the debate over AI-powered shopping is not so much the question of how quickly a transaction can be completed as how much of the purchasing decision will be taken away from the user. This distinction pits online convenience against the need to see and try a product, particularly in the case of high-priced products whose physical characteristics are tied to personal preference. Johnson’s approach views stores not merely as points of sale, but as spaces for decision-making, learning and after-sales support; this raises the question of how AI could transform the role of physical retail. However, his history at Apple, his experience at J.C. Penney and Enjoy Technology’s bankruptcy show that his views are the personal assessment of an executive who has worked across different retail models. The key question that remains is to what extent AI will empower consumers and how it will redefine the need for human assistance in stores.
Background
Apple is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 75 articles mentioning the name in the past 90 days; the most recent is dated October 2, 2026.
Term: agent
An AI agent is software that calls tools and carries out multi-step tasks to achieve a goal, rather than producing a single response.