B2B COMMERCE & AI AGENTS: COMPETE ON SERVICE, NOT PRICE | Intershop - INTERSHOP COMMUNICATIONS AG

Explicit Guidance:

• No specific financial metrics (revenue, earnings, margins, capex, cash flow, etc.) or quantitative guidance ranges provided by management for the current or future fiscal periods.

Business-Segment Outlook:

• E-commerce Integration: Anticipates that AI-driven features, specifically intent-based solutions and personalization, will become standard in "at least every 30% of e-commerce solutions" within the next "few months."
• Agentic Commerce Adoption: Identifies "agentic commerce" as the next evolution boundary, noting currently only "10 to 15% of companies worldwide" are operating at this maturity level, with expected growth in machines answering questions and executing tasks on behalf of organizations.
• Co-pilots vs. Agents: Forecasts a shift from human-assisted co-pilots (chatbots) to autonomous agents capable of executing standard jobs (content definition, localization, RFP document handling) to automate complex product inquiries and spare part logistics.
• Service Model Evolution: Projects that reliability and service (uptime, SLAs) will increasingly become the primary differentiator against low-cost competitors, allowing companies to command higher product prices through superior service rather than price competition.

Market and Competitive Outlook:

• Competitive Landscape: Warns that global competition is intensifying, particularly from Asian manufacturers (specifically China) entering high-tech sectors (robotics, AI, EVs), with China representing >14% of worldwide trade and a projected €360 billion trade surplus with the EU in 2025.
• Western European Disadvantages: Highlights structural headwinds for Western European manufacturers, including stagnant growth (1.6% GDP in EU/Western Europe), high energy costs, and bureaucratic burdens, creating an environment where price leadership is often a "race to the bottom."
• Market Shift: Predicts a transition where "out-serving" becomes the critical strategy to secure loyalty and long-term business when price competition is unviable.

Macro / Industry Outlook:

• Economic Environment: Describes the current landscape as having "a lot of insecurity," with macroeconomic problems and rising competition making the environment "harder for everyone."
• Regulatory & Sovereignty: Notes a growing European trend toward data sovereignty and independence from U.S. hyperscalers and emerging Asian players; expects continued demand for European-based, 100% European-owned financial and operational alternatives.
• Labor Market: Cites a shortage of educated people in Western Europe as a structural constraint necessitating automation.
• Technology Standards: Anticipates the widespread adoption of new technical standards (developed by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) enabling communication between e-commerce applications and organizations in the future.

Strategic Initiatives:

• Platform Architecture: Commits to building and promoting a "composable," "future-proof" commerce core architecture capable of integrating Large Language Models (LLMs), Small Language Models (SLMs), and AI agents.
• Security & Sovereignty Investments: Plans to invest heavily in initiatives ensuring European data sovereignty and independence from dominant US/Asian cloud providers.
• Partnership Strategy: Shifts vendor engagement model from simple product sales to "partnerships on eye level" with technology vendors and implementation partners, focusing on joint problem identification and KPI definition.
• Implementation Framework: Advocates for a structured approach to AI adoption: identifying problems first, assigning owners, defining KPIs, and prioritizing change management/user adoption to move beyond pilot phases into production.

Risks and Headwinds to Outlook:

• Implementation Failure: High risk that AI initiatives will remain "pilot" projects and fail to reach production if not anchored to specific problems, owners, and KPIs.
• Structural Costs: Continued disadvantage due to uncontrollable external factors: EU GDP growth of only 1.6%, high energy costs, and bureaucratic burdens.
• Competition from Asia: Rising competitive pressure from Chinese firms entering high-complexity, high-technology sectors, potentially displacing Western manufacturers on price.
• Talent Scarcity: Shortage of educated labor in Western Europe limits manual scaling options, increasing reliance on automation which carries implementation complexity.
• Geopolitical/Tech Dependency: Risk of over-reliance on US hyperscalers or Asian tech players, prompting a strategic need for alternative European infrastructure.

Management Tone on the Future:

• Urgent & Strategic: Tone is pragmatic and urgent, framing AI not as an experiment but as a "way to survive" and a necessary component of the operating model ("first of all a way to survive").
• Confident in Service Model: Expresses strong confidence that superior service, reliability, and AI-driven efficiency can offset structural cost disadvantages and price wars.
• Cautious on Execution: Explicitly warns against "pilot purgatory," emphasizing that success depends entirely on rigorous project management, KPI definition, and user adoption rather than technology alone.
• European Identity: Reinforces a tone of European resilience and self-reliance, highlighting the company's 100% European financial and operational structure as a strategic asset.

Miscellaneous:

• No specific dates for product launches or M&A activity mentioned beyond general "next few months" for feature adoption and "future" for agentic commerce standards.
• Management reiterates that 24/7/365 service capability is becoming a baseline requirement for B2B manufacturers, particularly for complex machinery and spare parts logistics.