As AI transforms every facet of modern society aside from the most hands-on jobs, it also greatly impacts e-commerce. Sellers are pushed to enhance operational efficiency and reach consumers more directly through AI agents that work conversationally on popular apps like WhatsApp.

To find out more, Romania Insider sat down with Mariano Gomide, founder and co-CEO of VTEX (NYSE: VTEX), which offers an AI-native operating system for the commerce ecosystem. He revealed that Romania is a major market for the company he leads, and that further investments will go toward AI-native operations, more efficient B2B and B2C commerce, marketplace expansion, and more connected customer experiences.

Digital commerce solutions provider and platform VTEX opened its first office in Romania in 2018, as part of its European expansion. How has the business grown since then, and does the Romanian market present any particularities?

Eastern Europe was a very intentional step in VTEX’s expansion. When we entered the market in 2018, we saw a strong combination of digital commerce potential, high-quality technology talent, and companies that were beginning to think more strategically about the role of commerce in their growth. Romania has become much more than a local market for VTEX. Today, our team in Bucharest plays an important role in supporting our operations across Central and Eastern Europe.

What makes Eastern Europe particularly interesting is that the markets still have meaningful room to grow. E-commerce adoption continues to develop, consumers are increasingly digital, and companies are looking not only at online sales but at broader commerce transformation. We see this across retail, marketplace models, omnichannel projects, and B2B digitalization.

VTEX started its Romanian operations with clients like F64, Miniprix, and Dacris. What other partnerships have been signed since then? How about regionally?

Since those first clients, our portfolio in Romania has expanded across different sectors, which reflects how commerce transformation is moving beyond traditional retail categories. We have worked with big brands like Meli Melo, Pentru Animale, Floria, Macromex, and Auchan. 

Each of these projects has had a different strategic objective. For some, the priority was improving the online customer experience. For others, it was enabling marketplace operations, supporting international growth, or digitalizing B2B relationships.

Floria, for example, is an interesting case because the company used VTEX to support a more scalable and international commerce operation, including multiple markets, languages, currencies, and a marketplace model. Macromex is another strong example, focused on the digitalization of B2B commerce in the frozen food sector. Auchan has also worked with VTEX to bring additional digital capabilities to its online experience.

Regionally, one of the most important examples is OBI, the German DIY retailer. The project involved multiple countries and was coordinated with a significant contribution from our Bucharest team. For us, this is a good example of the role the local team plays within VTEX: not only supporting local clients, but also contributing to complex, regional enterprise projects.

The company operates in 44 countries. What role does the VTEX team in Romania fulfill as part of the company’s global network? Is Bucharest a major hub?

Bucharest is an important hub for VTEX in Europe. The Romanian team supports commercial and operational activity across a significant part of the European region. This is very important for us because enterprise commerce requires proximity to clients, strong technical knowledge, and the ability to coordinate complex projects across markets.

Will AI agents become indispensable for brands in the future, and how will that impact employees?

AI agents will become increasingly important for brands because commerce operations are becoming too complex to be managed only through manual processes. Retailers and brands need to move faster, personalize more effectively, optimize operations in real time, and reduce inefficiencies across the business.

At VTEX, we see AI as part of the core commerce operation, not just as an additional feature. With VTEX Vision 2026, we are building toward an AI-native commerce platform where agents can support areas such as catalog management, promotions, search optimization, customer service, and business intelligence.

The impact on employees is an important point. AI will automate many repetitive and operational tasks, especially those that are high-volume and process-driven. But that does not mean people become less important. It means their role changes.

The most valuable work will be in defining strategy, setting the right business context, training and supervising AI agents, interpreting insights, and making decisions that require judgment, creativity, and accountability. Companies that invest in helping their teams evolve alongside AI will be in a much stronger position.

For us, the goal is not simply automation. The goal is to help brands operate with more intelligence, more efficiency, and more capacity for growth. The brands that will get this right are the ones that treat AI adoption not just as an efficiency exercise, but as an opportunity to elevate what their people actually spend their time doing.

VTEX already handles end-to-end commerce inside WhatsApp in other markets, and Romania has high WhatsApp penetration. Are any local clients actively piloting conversational commerce on that channel?

Conversational commerce is an area where VTEX has developed strong capabilities, especially in markets where messaging platforms are central to the way consumers interact with brands.

This connects closely to what I call concierge commerce: the idea that digital commerce is moving from a model where customers have to search, navigate, and solve everything by themselves, to one where brands can guide, assist, and serve customers in a much more personal and contextual way. In practice, that means using AI, data, and conversational interfaces to make the shopping experience feel closer to a high-quality in-store interaction, but with the scale and efficiency of digital commerce.

We believe this is a natural evolution of commerce. Consumers increasingly expect to discover products, ask questions, receive support, and complete transactions in the channels they already use every day. Messaging platforms can make that experience more direct, more convenient, and more human.

Eastern Europe has many of the right conditions for conversational and concierge commerce to grow. Consumers are familiar with messaging apps, and brands are looking for ways to reduce friction in the customer journey while improving service efficiency.

What does the next investment cycle look like for the company’s Romanian/CEE operation?

CEE will continue to be an important part of VTEX’s strategy. Our focus is on strengthening the capabilities we already have in the market to support our enterprise clients. The next phase is closely connected to where commerce is going globally: AI-native operations, more efficient B2B and B2C commerce, marketplace expansion, and more connected customer experiences. These are areas where we believe the CEE markets have strong potential.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: VTEX)