The man who built Apple's stores isn't buying Silicon Valley's bet on AI shopping

While tech giants pour billions into AI agents meant to buy for us, Ron Johnson, the architect of Apple's retail network, thinks the industry is overestimating people's willingness to hand over purchasing to machines. In an interview with TechCrunch, the 66-year-old Johnson said AI will improve the online shopping experience but won't change the fundamental way we shop. "No one is really going to do this," he said when asked if anyone would let an agent pick and buy a $1,000 or $2,000 laptop (roughly 3,700 to 7,400 shekels) without visiting a website or store.

The physical experience isn't replaceable

Buying a laptop, Johnson argues, is too personal a decision to delegate to a software agent. Shoppers want to feel the weight, see the display, decide which size fits. AI might narrow the options, he added, but consumers will still want to experience the product themselves before spending that kind of money. "AI will never let you experience a product physically." Instead, he sees agents making customers better informed before they walk through the door. "They'll just show up at the store as more informed buyers."

The lesson from two decades ago

That view traces back to a decision Apple made more than twenty years ago. The stores were designed not just as places to buy a Mac but as spaces where you could try products, learn to use them, and return for help when something broke — a model that spawned the Genius Bar. In his new book, "Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius," he describes how competitors copied the glass façades, the open layouts, even versions of the Genius Bar, but missed the human element. "Apple's secret sauce was always its people, the people in the store, and how they treat the customer," he explained.

No commissions, no pressure

Apple Store employees aren't paid sales commissions, unlike the prevailing culture in most retail. The idea was to remove the pressure to sell and instead have staff understand what the customer actually needs. After leaving Apple, Johnson tried to apply a similar approach at J.C. Penney in 2011 and was ousted less than two years later after sales plunged. In hindsight he admitted he tried to change too much, too fast, without bringing employees and customers along. "I applied a startup mentality to what needed to be an organizational turnaround," he recalled.

A second attempt that ended in bankruptcy

Later he founded Enjoy Technology, a startup that brought tech products and setup services directly to customers' homes. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and sold most of its assets to Asurion. Meanwhile, Google is pushing the Universal Commerce Protocol, designed to let AI agents shepherd consumers from product discovery through checkout, and OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a shopping destination where you can research, compare, and sometimes buy without leaving the chatbot. Johnson, in short, is unimpressed.