By Mukundan Sivaraj
Publication Date: 2025-12-02 10:30:00
Ashley Furniture just announced a new shopping experience that may change how consumers buy furniture, and how retailers in the space compete. The company announced a partnership with Perplexity and PayPal to enable a fully transactional journey inside Perplexity’s conversational interface. Shoppers can ask for recommendations, browse curated options, add items to cart, and complete checkout within a chat session.
With this move, Ashley aims to stake an early claim in agentic commerce, the confluence of AI-driven discovery and direct purchase, for large home-furnishing retailers. This is in line with the leadership’s view that AI goes beyond being a marginal efficiency tool, towards setting a strategic foundation.
Internal Strategy Meets External Push
The Perplexity-PayPal integration is the outward expression of a broader, multi-year AI strategy inside Ashley.
Todd Wanek, CEO of Ashley Furniture, described AI as “as important and impactful to society as fire was to the caveman.” Beyond that metaphor, Wanek and his team have long invested in AI for multiple internal functions: forecasting demand across thousands of SKUs, optimizing supply chain logistics, using AI in HR and accounts payable, and deploying productivity tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot) across offices.
Wanek estimated that Ashley has identified over 170 projects where AI can create value, ranging from demand forecasting to creative services. The shift to consumer-facing,…
