# Where AI pays back in retail, and where it is theatre. > Steve Webster speaks on agentic commerce, AI in retail and the demand-side realities behind both, for boards and senior retail audiences. 2026 diary includes eCommerce Expo, London, the Digital Clubhouse Summit, Manchester, the Retail Technology Summit, London, and the RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel. Recent podcast interviews include The Struggle Bus and The Fashion Think Tank. Source: https://barkingcat.ai/speaking/ ## Speaking Steve Webster speaks on commerce: where AI pays back in retail, and where it is theatre. A commercial operator running retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999, twice named in Vogue’s 100 Most Influential in Online Fashion, he brings trading-floor evidence to subjects usually presented from slideware. ### Who owns discovery Agentic commerce, the trust gap, and what happens to brands when the customer stops browsing. ### Value or theatre Where AI pays back in retail: the work behind the storefront that nobody puts on a slide, and how to tell a capability from a subscription. ### The barking cat problem Why businesses demand outcomes their operating model cannot produce, and the readiness work that fixes it. ## Forward diary ### 4 November 2026 · London Retail Technology Summit, The Retail Bulletin. AI panel. Cavendish Conference Centre, London. [View the speaker profile](https://www.theretailbulletin.com/retail-events/retail-technology-summit/speakers/). ### 4 November 2026 · London RTIH Innovation Awards, eighth edition. Judging panel, AI Innovation category. [View the judging panel](https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/2026-rtih-innovation-awards-judging-panel). ## Recent ### 21 October 2026 · Podcast The Struggle Bus with Vinny O’Brien, Season 4, Episode 2: Staying Calm in the Chaos. Why calm gets mistaken for not caring, and the conversion-rate trap: an 18% day, produced when a mail-order business’s phone lines failed and customers came online instead, that then became the target. [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4p5kylNG7lXElBuvNsK3ps). [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJw8jGwavfc). [Read Vinny’s write-up](https://www.vinnyandco.com/p/the-calm-man-in-the-noisy-room). ### 20 October 2026 · Podcast The Fashion Think Tank: Fashion Ecommerce, an interview with Steve Webster. Where fashion ecommerce goes next, from how search is changing to what AI is actually delivering for fashion brands and retailers. [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5amIHxkkO73ZJ2PWhmWmho). ### 14 October 2026 · Online Webinar: Bulletproof the Golden Quarter. With Paul Sanderson, CEO, The Commerce Team Global. A practical conversation on peak readiness for ecommerce operations, built on [the Barking Cat playbook](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/bulletproof-for-the-golden-quarter/). [Watch the webinar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6g8wGCJIP0). ### 2 October 2026 · Manchester [Digital Clubhouse Summit](https://summit.digitalclubhouse.co.uk/), Science and Industry Museum. Will moving actually fix it? Migrating platforms, honestly. Panel discussion. The argument behind it: [Should we replatform?](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/should-we-replatform/) ### 24 September 2026 · London eCommerce Expo, The Headline Stage, with Joe Jaques, Jaques of London. What Customers Say vs What They Do: The Signals Retailers Should Actually Trust. Five kinds of customer signal, what customers say, search, do, buy and shout, why none of them is the customer, and the Signal Test for deciding which one to act on. [View the deck](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/what-customers-say-vs-what-they-do-ecommerce-expo-2026.pdf). ### 9 September 2026 · Manchester Ultimate Customer Experience Workshop. Panel: AI, Automation & the Future of Customer Service. ### July 2026 Ecommerce Leadership Summit South. Panel: Agentic Commerce, When AI Starts Buying for the Customer. ### 8 July 2026 IMRG, AI in the Workplace, live Q&A. ### April 2026 · London Digital Cheesecake, live podcast panel recorded before a full audience: Why Most Ecommerce Businesses Are Not Ready to Scale. [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aNF5YSr69WrjIQF2EN9xt). ### 23 April 2026 ECommerceCamp: The Ecommerce Decisions That Actually Mattered. The four structural decisions buried inside every growth story, channel architecture, market entry, margin architecture, measurement, and why whether they are made deliberately or by default determines the outcome. The same Foundation First discipline that now runs inside the Barking Cat Review. [View the deck](https://barkingcat.ai/assets/ecommercecamp-decisions-that-mattered.pdf). For panels, keynotes and podcasts: [steve@barkingcat.ai](mailto:steve@barkingcat.ai) ## On stage ## The argument, made out loud Digital Clubhouse Summit, Manchester: will moving actually fix it? Migrating platforms, honestly. Agentic Commerce panel: when AI starts buying for the customer. Steve seated, nearest the camera. Digital Cheesecake, On the Road: why most ecommerce businesses are not ready to scale. ## International ## The GCC years, on the record Before Barbour, Steve spent half a decade running D2C for premium brands across the Gulf, and spoke on the GCC circuit in that period. The international track record was earned on the ground. Internet Commerce Summit, Dubai: Curating the Next Level of Customer Experiences. Speaking as a regional ecommerce director in the GCC. ### Dubai Internet Commerce Summit. Panel: Curating the Next Level of Customer Experiences. ### February 2023 · Dubai Marketplace & D2C Conference. Billed as Global Ecommerce Director, LIWA Trading, across a brand portfolio including GANT, La Senza, DWELL and ZIPPY. ## Contact steve@barkingcat.ai Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.