For the industry, Black Friday serves as a mirror reflecting whether digital infrastructures are prepared for the next wave of consumer expectations driven by Artificial Intelligence. According to Santiago Naranjo, CRO of VTEX, the key to success has ceased to depend exclusively on discounts and is now focused on companies' ability to use artificial intelligence (AI), data, and robust platforms to transform operational complexity into profitable growth on a global scale. Retailers who still see Black Friday as merely a marketing effort face a tense operational reality, marked by pressure on inventories, the need for architectures that support massive traffic spikes, and the impact of promotions on margins. Two Structural Transformations Driven by Technology Black Friday is no longer just a marketing challenge, but one of systems and intelligence. Concrete results show that lower latency reduces cart abandonment, and real-time synchronization of prices and inventories prevents margin destruction during promotions. The VTEX CRO emphasizes that brands that invested early in platform modernization and AI-driven operations captured a disproportionate share of the market during the peak. However, the expert points out the need for transparency about the limits and responsibilities of AI. The winning companies will be those that integrate AI into robust commerce platforms, operate on real-time data, and design promotions with margin sensitivity. For executives, the lesson is clear: investment in architecture and data governance must be made now, or the cost to be paid in the next peak will be significantly higher. Artificial Intelligence Drives Profitable Growth in Commerce During the Black Friday Season • With online sales reaching $74.4 billion globally in 2024, Black Friday demonstrates that platform stability and AI-driven personalization are key to conversion and profitability. The combination of machine speed with human judgment—including human controls for critical decisions like pricing, fraud detection, and customer service—is the most reliable path to sustainable performance. The Future: An Extended Sales Season Looking ahead, Black Friday is expected to cease being a single event to become an extended sales season. This growth underscores the event's role as a key driver of global and regional digital commerce, with an accelerated surge in transactions in Latin American markets like Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Modernization, Stability, and AI Governance The adoption of artificial intelligence during this season was decisive: generative chatbots, virtual assistants, and predictive systems drove higher conversion, optimizing the shopping experience and maximizing the value of traffic. Generative and predictive models require governance, which includes data quality and provenance, and clear ethical boundaries. (26/Nov/2025 – web – Panama24Horas.com.pa) Panama City, Panama.- Black Friday has transcended its origin as a simple day of aggressive offers to become a massive testing ground where technology, operations, and consumer behavior are examined on a large scale. This demands platforms that natively support hybrid flows, rather than fragile integrations built on legacy systems. The global sales volume for Black Friday 2024 reached a historic high, with estimated online sales at $74.4 billion, representing a 5% year-over-year growth. Naranjo identifies two structural transformations that define performance during traffic peaks: • The Hyper-Assisted Consumer Journey: Shoppers use AI tools, discovery engines, and personalized recommendation systems to find offers faster and with a greater purchase intent. • Truly Omnichannel Commerce: A significant portion of orders originate online but are completed in physical stores, or vice versa. In the United States alone, consumers spent $10.8 billion on online purchases, a 10.2% increase from the previous year, according to Adobe data.
