Tolstoy Research

Advancing AI commerce.
Sharing what works.

We research the frontier of AI commerce, then share what we learn to help brands and the wider community put it into practice.

01 · Original research

The frontier of AI commerce.

Our research connects advances in AI with the realities of ecommerce: the content brands create, the experiences they build and the people who shop with them.

Generation-model benchmarks

Compare generation models on ecommerce use cases, from product photos and colorways to video and virtual try-on.

Product fidelity and visual quality
Consistency across products and variations
Which models suit which tasks

Shopper research

Analyze anonymized shopper groups to understand how people discover products, seek guidance and make decisions.

Patterns across shopper groups
The questions behind product decisions
How people use AI shopping experiences

Public research reportsComing soon

02 · Community & education

Learn from the research.
Put it to work.

We share findings, practical guidance and best practices for applied AI commerce with the people building it. Explore perspectives and playbooks today, with community conversations and events to come.

The ideas

Perspectives

All articles

Featured perspective

What Is an Agentic Storefront? A Practical Guide for Shopify Brands

Learn what an agentic storefront is, how it differs from a chatbot, and what Shopify brands need to launch one that actually helps shoppers buy.

Read the article

Perspective

MCP for Ecommerce: Why Shopify Brands Need It Now

Learn what MCP is, why AI tools are adopting Model Context Protocol, and how Shopify brands can use Tolstoy MCP to connect AI agents to content workflows.

Read the article

Perspective

Meta Ads Strategy for Ecommerce Brands

A practical Meta ads strategy for ecommerce teams using AI to plan clearer tests, create better variations, match landing pages, and learn faster.

Read the article

The practice

Put the ideas to work.

All playbooks

Paid ads

Build a content kit for a product launch

Pick a new product, and Tolstoy writes launch briefs for Meta ads, TikTok hooks, product page copy, email and onsite placements, then makes the assets you approve.

Explore the playbook

Paid ads

Decide which Meta ads to kill, scale or refresh

Every morning, Tolstoy gives each active Meta ad one verdict (kill, scale, refresh or keep) with exact budget numbers, and drafts new concepts for tired ads.

Explore the playbook

Storefront