.avif)
We helped Empik kill the filter. Here's how we replaced it.
Gift shopping online is a mess. You know what you want to find, but the website makes you translate that into its language: categories, subcategories, price ranges, checkboxes. By the time you've applied seven filters, you've forgotten why you came.
We just launched something with Empik that takes a different approach. A gift advisor where customers talk like normal people.
"Gift for my brother, 27, into crime novels and board games, 120 PLN."
Our AI Agent pulls recommendations from across the catalog. Books, games, gadgets. Things you wouldn't have found by clicking through menus for an hour.
And yes, you can literally talk to it. We enabled voice mode - it’s like you'd talk to a friend who happens to know every product Empik sells.
This isn't a chatbot with a fancy wrapper
Most "AI shopping assistants" are keyword matchers dressed up with a chat interface. Ask them something slightly complex and they fall apart.
We built this to handle the messy stuff. "Something for my sister who's into K-pop, paints her nails, and just started running. Budget 200 PLN."
That's three unrelated categories. Most e-commerce search would choke. Our AI Agent returns gift "stories" that actually make sense together, pulling from Empik's full product catalog and understanding context the way a great store assistant would.
Why we built this
At Zowie, we've spent years building AI Agents that handle customer support end-to-end. Returns, refunds, order changes. The kind of stuff that used to require a human agent for every single ticket.
But here's what we realized: support and sales aren't separate problems. They're both conversations that need to end with something done. The same AI Agent architecture that processes a refund can help someone find a birthday present.
Empik saw this too. They didn't want to bolt on a generic chatbot or wait for some global tech giant to figure out conversational commerce. They wanted to build something real, now, that actually works for Polish customers describing gifts the way Polish people describe gifts.
So we built it together - Zowie's AI Agent technology and Empik's catalog, understanding the nuances of how people shop for others.
Shipped while others are still piloting
While international retailers publish press releases about "exploring AI capabilities," Empik put this on their homepage during holiday season. That's not being early. That's being bold.
What this means for what we're building
For us, this is a proof point. AI Agents aren't just for deflecting support tickets. They can transform how customers discover and buy products. The same Zowie platform that powers customer service for brands like Monos, InPost, and Modivo can power entirely new customer experiences.
Support is where we started. But conversations don't stop at "where's my order."
Try it yourself
The gift advisor is live at empik.com. Describe someone you need to buy a gift for and see what happens (available in Polish, with the same Zowie technology supporting over 170 languages across other markets). This is just the beginning - Empik plans to expand conversational shopping across more categories in 2026.
