Saleor Unveils Open-Source AI-Native Commerce Platform Challenging Shopify

Saleor Unveils Open-Source AI-Native Commerce Platform Challenging Shopify

In a landmark development for e-commerce infrastructure, Saleor — the open-source commerce platform with over 22,000 GitHub stars — has announced the full rollout of its AI-native commerce stack, positioning itself as a transparent, developer- and agent-friendly alternative to proprietary giants like Shopify. Unlike traditional platforms that bolt AI features onto legacy architectures, Saleor has reimagined e-commerce from the ground up as a programmable, agent-driven ecosystem. The initiative, detailed in a comprehensive blog post, introduces the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a first-of-its-kind open standard enabling autonomous AI agents to browse inventories, validate pricing, and complete purchases without human intervention.

The core innovation lies in Saleor’s rejection of the "chat widget on a store" model in favor of deep API integration. According to the company, its new Ink AI pilot layer functions not as a conversational interface over search results, but as a grounded, real-time storefront engine that dynamically interacts with live inventory, tax, shipping, and payment systems. This allows AI agents — whether deployed by consumers, enterprises, or third-party services — to autonomously navigate product catalogs, compare options across vendors, and execute transactions with full contextual awareness. "We’re not adding AI to commerce; we’re rebuilding commerce for AI," said Saleor’s lead architect in the announcement.

Central to this vision is "Commerce as Code," a paradigm that treats store configuration, workflows, and business logic as version-controlled code rather than GUI-driven settings. This enables agents to programmatically create, modify, and scale storefronts, aligning with DevOps and infrastructure-as-code best practices. Developers can now define product rules, discount logic, and fulfillment paths using YAML or JSON schemas, which agents can then interpret and execute autonomously. This contrasts sharply with closed platforms that restrict customization and offer opaque, proprietary APIs.

Saleor’s adoption of the Agentic Commerce Protocol — the first open standard of its kind — marks a strategic pivot toward interoperability. ACP, along with upcoming UCP and AP2 protocols, defines how agents authenticate, query, and transact across platforms. By making these protocols public and extensible, Saleor invites competitors and developers to build compatible agents, fostering an open ecosystem rather than a walled garden. This approach echoes the ethos of the early web, where open standards like HTTP and HTML enabled explosive innovation.

While major players like Shopify and Amazon continue to integrate generative AI into their interfaces — often as superficial chatbots — Saleor argues that true agentic commerce requires foundational infrastructure change. "You can’t have autonomous buyers if the underlying system is designed for human clicks," the announcement states. The platform’s architecture, built on GraphQL and structured data, was intentionally designed years ago to support this future, giving Saleor a head start over incumbents scrambling to retrofit AI.

Industry observers note that Saleor’s move could catalyze a new wave of B2B and enterprise commerce automation. Logistics firms, procurement bots, and even AI personal shoppers could leverage Saleor’s open APIs to source products across thousands of merchant endpoints. The platform’s open-source nature also allows for auditability — a critical factor for regulated industries like healthcare and finance, where compliance and transparency are non-negotiable.

Though still in pilot, Ink AI and ACP have already attracted interest from decentralized finance (DeFi) projects and Web3 marketplaces seeking seamless, non-custodial commerce layers. With over 1,200 contributors on GitHub and active adoption by mid-market retailers, Saleor is no longer a niche tool — it’s a contender. As AI agents evolve from assistants to autonomous actors, Saleor’s bet on open, code-driven commerce may define the next decade of online retail.