Salesforce’s planned acquisition of Cimulate is set to enhance Agentforce Commerce as online discovery shifts from traditional website clicks to AI-generated search summaries.
Cimulate brings a suite of large language model (LLM) powered capabilities, including AI-driven search and browsing, product recommendations, content optimization, conversational shopping agents, and agentic interfaces. Its merchandising tools also deliver advanced analytics to help retailers better understand shopper behavior.
Cimulate’s customer roster features major retailers such as Pacsun, Boot Barn, and CDW. In announcing the deal, Salesforce said the technology will enable more “intent-driven” shopping experiences.
At the core of Cimulate’s value is its CommerceGPT platform, an LLM-based commerce operating system that uses natural language understanding to interpret shopper intent. Unlike traditional rules- or keyword-based search engines, CommerceGPT can recognize that terms like “blouse,” “shirt,” and “top” often reflect the same intent allowing retailers to deliver more relevant search results and product recommendations.
Futurum Group Vice President and Research Director Keith Kirkpatrick said Cimulate could help Salesforce keep pace with rapidly evolving commerce experiences. Customers increasingly expect to move seamlessly across channels—such as messaging, web, and SMS—while researching and purchasing products, and Cimulate’s technology could help close functionality gaps in Agentforce Commerce, formerly known as Commerce Cloud.
“It’s very much like Buck Rogers, where everything, all the time, is at your fingertips,” Kirkpatrick said. “That’s how you’re going to capture the customer in a world where everything is pretty much undifferentiated in terms of product quality.”
Even so, the mechanics of shopping beyond the traditional browser are still being defined. Digital marketing and e-commerce experts have yet to agree on terminology for optimizing visibility in AI-generated search summaries. Some refer to it as generative engine optimization or generative experience optimization (GEO), others as AI search optimization (AISO), while Cimulate uses the term Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). In many cases, these labels are used interchangeably, despite differing definitions.
Regardless of which term ultimately prevails, the discipline remains in its early stages as marketers race to establish an advantage in emerging AI-driven discovery environments. At the same time, AI search summaries are increasingly absorbing traffic that once resulted in direct website clicks.
Cimulate is also expected to bring autonomous shopping agent technology to Salesforce. While consumer adoption of shopping agents remains uncertain—some shoppers may still prefer the hands-on experience—there is significant potential in B2B use cases. Autonomous agents could streamline repeat or standing orders for supplies and inventory, reducing manual purchasing overhead.
Kirkpatrick contrasted this with traditional, rules-based inventory management. For example, a hardware retailer can estimate snow shovel demand by analyzing last year’s sales and factoring in weather forecasts. Generative AI models, however, can evaluate far more complex signals than rules-based analytics to determine optimal inventory levels and distribution.
“We’re obviously beyond the basics, but we’re not yet at the stage of fully optimizing production and supply chains—deciding the best routes or fuel usage,” Kirkpatrick said. “That will take more time. But I certainly see agents playing a role in that future.”
Salesforce said the acquisition of Cimulate is expected to close within the next three months. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
