From Columbia to Custom AI, an Agentic Commerce Deep Dive | Amine Allouah, My Custom AI

Dr. Amine Allouah completed his PhD at Columbia Business School, specializing in algorithmic game theory and optimization in multi-agent systems. After leading applied science work at Meta across ads, notifications, and marketplace teams, he co-founded My Custom AI to help enterprises deploy tailored AI solutions. His work bridges deep theory with practical applications, shaping how businesses think about LLMs, agents, and the economics of AI.

This week on Retailgentic, we’re joined by Dr. Amine, co-founder of My Custom AI and one of the sharpest minds at the intersection of AI, economics, and retail. In this conversation, we dig deep into:

• Amine’s journey: École Polytechnique → Columbia → Meta → entrepreneurship
• What algorithmic game theory means for real-world AI systems
• Why enterprises need custom models for accuracy, privacy, and cost savings
• The ACES Framework: how agents really “shop” online
• Surprising findings: agents ignore ads, but positioning still matters
• Why MCP isn’t enough, and what’s next for protocols
• Implications for retailers, brands, and the future of retail media

If you’ve ever wondered how agents will reshape retail and what brands need to do right now to prepare, this episode will give you a front-row seat to the future of agentic commerce.

Highlights/Timestamps ⏱️
0:00 – How agents drive omnichannel growth beyond e-commerce
5:00 – Meet guest Amine Allouah: from École Polytechnique to Columbia PhD
9:30 – Game theory, algorithm design, and AI: lessons from his PhD
13:45 – From Meta AI researcher to startup founder: the origin of My Custom AI
18:10 – What My Custom AI does: feasibility studies, custom model training & workshops
23:25 – Why retailers sometimes need their own LLMs: accuracy, privacy & cost savings
29:20 – Beyond LLaMA: multimodal models, recommendation systems, and custom architectures
34:05 – The ACES Framework: building a sandbox to study agent shopping
39:16 – Optimizations around pricing, loyalty & group buying
39:24 – Why group buying startups have struggled
39:35 – Aligning buyer and seller agents for better outcomes
44:15 – Agent behavior insights: Claude and the “ergonomic” keyword example
48:50 – The case for seller-side agents and real-time PDP updates
51:31 – Amazon is the first company to adopt the ACES framework
55:00 – Retail media networks in an agent world: real-time “agentic ads”
58:00 – Will websites die? The future of browsing, checkouts & merchant centers
1:01:00 – Closing thoughts + where to find Amine & the ACES paper

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