Manifest AI Startup Case Study: Reinventing E-Commerce with 24/7 AI Assistance

Manifest AI

Manifest AI is an AI-based shopping assistant designed to help Shopify store owners enhance customer engagement and increase sales. It replicates the in-store shopping experience by providing personalized recommendations, proactive nudges, and round-the-clock support to online customers.

Founding Year: 2023

Headquarters: Palo Alto, California, USA

Industry: E-commerce Technology/AI SaaS

Status: Active

Business Model

B2B, One-sided, Product

• Clients: Shopify store owners or managers who are proactive in seeking solutions to enhance their online store’s performance. They focus on improving customer engagement, sales conversion rates, and average order value. They appreciate ease of integration with the Shopify platform and value features that automate customer support and provide personalized shopping experiences.

It’s Like: A personal shopping assistant but powered by AI and available 24/7 within your online store.

Manifest AI replicates the experience of a dedicated salesperson guiding customers through a physical store, but it does so digitally and at scale.

• Human Availability: Human sales associates are limited by time and availability. Manifest AI operates 24/7, ensuring consistent customer engagement.
• Scalability: Physical stores have limited staff capacity. Manifest AI can handle interactions with numerous customers simultaneously, regardless of store traffic.
• Personalization: Human assistants rely on observation and experience. Manifest AI leverages AI and data analysis to provide highly personalized product recommendations and interactions tailored to individual customer preferences and behaviors.

Key Challenges

• High Bounce Rates: 96% of online store visitors leave without making purchases because they can’t find what they need or don’t know how to find it.
• Ineffective Search: Standard online store search tools “do not understand human language”, as they can only search for products by formal features, not by how people describe their needs or desires.
• Lack of Personalized Engagement: Generic online store experiences fail to engage visitors and guide them toward making a purchase. Many visitors leave before their needs are understood or addressed.
• Limited Customer Support: Providing round-the-clock human customer support is costly and often infeasible for many online businesses.

Key Features & Services

• AI Shopping Assistant: Acts as a 24/7 digital sales associate, engaging visitors, answering questions, and providing personalized product recommendations.
• AI Shopping Pages: Creates ChatGPT-like landing pages that dynamically adapt to user interactions and guide them toward relevant products.
• AI Nudge: Proactively engages passive visitors with personalized prompts and messages, encouraging interaction and exploration.
• AI Quiz: Generates real-time personalized quizzes to help visitors identify their needs and discover suitable products.
• AI Search: Enables more intuitive product discovery by understanding natural language and user intent.
• AI Support: Provides automated customer support, answering common queries and freeing up human agents to handle more complex issues.

Founding Story

Late 2022: Sonakshi Nathani and Ashutosh Singla, co-founders of BIK (an AI platform for marketers), recognize the transformative potential of advanced generative AI models like ChatGPT for e-commerce.

Problem: They identify a significant issue in online retail: high visitor drop-off rates, with a large percentage of website visitors leaving without making a purchase due to difficulties finding products or a lack of information.

Founders’ Background:

• Sonakshi Nathani (CEO): Over seven years of experience in software engineering, AI, and sentiment analysis. Previously a Software Developer at Microsoft, holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science from IIIT.
• Ashutosh Singla (CTO): Experienced software engineer, worked at companies like Square and Zenefits. Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from IIIT Hyderabad.

Starting Point: Leveraging their existing company, BIK, and its resources, they decide to develop an AI-powered solution to address the drop-off problem.

Solution: They created Manifest AI, an AI shopping assistant designed to act like a human sales agent on Shopify stores, aiming to improve customer engagement and sales.

First Results: Around June 9, 2023, Manifest AI launches. Early adopters report significant benefits: increased sales, improved conversion rates, higher average order values, and reduced customer support workload.

Continued Growth: Manifest AI rapidly onboards thousands of e-commerce brands. They introduce new features: AI Shopping Pages, AI Nudge, AI Support, AI Quiz, and AI Search.

Technology for Success: Utilization of advanced GPT models (GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4o) for natural language processing and human-like conversations. Multilingual support to cater to a global customer base. Personalization features for tailored product recommendations.  Seamless integration with Shopify and other platforms.

Key Growth Milestones

• 2023: Manifest AI was founded in Palo Alto, California, to address high visitor drop-off rates in e-commerce.
• 2024: Introduced new features such as AI Shopping Pages, AI Nudge, AI Support, AI Quiz, and AI Search to enhance customer engagement and sales.
• Ongoing: Manifest AI reached $3.1M revenue in 2025, expanded to 28 staff, launched AI Risk Transparency, and continues to address critical operational gaps in AI governance and security.

Market & Competition

Target Market

E-commerce Businesses: Manifest AI primarily targets e-commerce businesses, with a specific focus on those using the Shopify platform.

• Market Size: The potential market for Manifest AI is substantial. Shopify hosts approximately 4 million stores globally as of 2023. This vast ecosystem presents significant opportunities for Manifest AI to expand its user base within the Shopify platform.
• Growth Trends: The integration of artificial intelligence in e-commerce is experiencing rapid growth. The global AI in e-commerce market was valued at approximately $5.79 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach around $50.98 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.3%. This trend underscores the increasing demand for AI-driven solutions like Manifest AI in the e-commerce sector.
• Potential New Markets: Manifest AI’s multilingual capabilities position it for global expansion. Additionally, expanding to other e-commerce platforms beyond Shopify could be a future growth avenue.
• Problem Addressed: Manifest AI aims to address the challenge of high visitor drop-off rates in online stores, where 96% of visitors leave without making a purchase.  They achieve this by providing AI-powered tools that enhance customer engagement, personalize the shopping experience, and streamline customer support.

Competitor Landscape

Manifest AI operates in a competitive landscape of AI-powered e-commerce solutions and chatbot providers.

Key competitors include:

• Zoovu: A well-established player in AI-based customer engagement for e-commerce.  
• nate: An app-based retailer with integrated AI-powered shopping features.  
• SmartBot: A leading AI chatbot specifically designed for Shopify.  
• Tidio: Offers a range of AI-powered customer interaction and support tools for e-commerce.  
• Other Shopify Apps: Manifest AI also faces competition from various other Shopify apps offering AI-driven customer support and engagement solutions.  

Marketing & Sales

Main Positioning Values: Enhanced Customer Engagement and Boosting of Sales

Website & Socials

• Its website, getmanifest.ai, currently sees around 10,399 monthly visits.
• Nearly half of the traffic (about 45%) is direct, and roughly 39% comes from organic search, reflecting both brand strength and a significant interest from online searches. Referrals account for about 11%, social media about 3%, and ads visits are under 1%.
• The largest portion of visitors comes from India, the United States, Vietnam, and Ireland.
• On social media channels, LinkedIn stands out as the dominant source, followed by YouTube and Facebook.

Media Coverage

• Gorgias Blog: Highlighted Manifest AI’s integration with Gorgias, emphasizing its role in enhancing customer support and boosting sales for e-commerce brands.
• Deepgram: Featured Manifest AI as an innovative AI-powered shopping assistant, detailing its capabilities in personalizing the pre-purchase journey for online shoppers.
• YouTube: A live demo showcased Manifest AI’s features, including its integration with Instagram AI, demonstrating how it aids e-commerce brands in enhancing customer interactions.
• PR Newswire: Highlighted the lead role of Manifest AI through its launch of the industry’s first AI Risk Transparency Solution.

Marketing Strategies

• Target Audience: Manifest AI primarily targets e-commerce businesses, specifically those using the Shopify platform. This is evident from their website copy, product integrations, and app store listings.
• Customer Acquisition:
  • Shopify App Store: Their primary acquisition channel is through listing on the Shopify App Store, making it easily accessible to their target audience.
  • Free Trials and Demos: They offer free trials and product demos to allow potential customers to experience the platform’s benefits firsthand.
  • Partner Program: Manifest AI incentivizes referrals through a commission-based partner program, leveraging partnerships to expand its reach.
  • Content Marketing: They utilize blog and video content marketing on their YouTube channel, featuring product demos, expert interviews, and discussions on AI in e-commerce.
  • Shopify Knowledge Base: They provide valuable content tailored to Shopify store owners through a dedicated knowledge base on their website.
  • App Comparison Websites: They seek visibility on platforms like Carthook and Releasit, where e-commerce businesses compare solutions.
• Key Value Proposition: Manifest AI focuses on addressing pain points related to high bounce rates, low conversion rates, and the need for 24/7 customer support in online stores. They achieve this by offering AI-powered solutions that enhance customer engagement, personalize the shopping experience, and automate support tasks.

Product & Innovation

• GPT-Powered Personalization: Utilizes advanced GPT models (GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4o) to power its AI shopping assistant, enabling human-like conversations and highly personalized interactions.
• Multilingual Support: Caters to a global audience by understanding and responding in multiple languages.
• Proactive Engagement: Features like AI Nudges and AI Quizzes proactively engage visitors, guiding them toward purchases and preventing drop-offs.
• Seamless Shopify Integration: Designed specifically for Shopify stores, ensuring easy implementation and compatibility.
• Integration with Support Platforms: Integrates with popular customer support platforms like Gorgias and Zendesk, streamlining customer interactions.

Financials & Metrics

Revenue Model

Manifest AI operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, offering tiered subscription plans to e-commerce businesses.

Metrics

• Employee Count: As of 2024, Manifest AI employs approximately 11 to 50 individuals.
• User Base: As of June 2025, Manifest AI is installed on over 280 Shopify stores.

Structure & Culture

Structure

Key Leadership:

• Sonakshi Nathani: CEO, responsible for overall company direction and strategy.
• Ashutosh Singla: CTO, leads the technological development of Manifest AI.
• Ayush Chaurasia: Chief of Staff, plays a key role in both Manifest AI and the parent company, BIK.

Other Positions:

• Head of Products
• Senior Growth Manager

Teams:

• Product Development
• Growth and Marketing
• Customer Success
• Engineering

Values

Manifest AI fosters a culture centered around a thoughtful, empathetic, and improvement-oriented organization. The company’s core values include:

• Ease for Buyers & Brands: Simplifies shopping while boosting sales through AI-powered personalization.
• Human-Centered Journey: Creates warm, empathetic, human-like shopping experiences digitally.
• Continuous Improvement: Delivers excellence through daily, incremental product refinements.
• Customer Focus: Founders stay accessible, prioritizing feedback, trust, and transparency.

Impact & Success

Customer Feedback and Results

Manifest AI has received widespread acclaim from Shopify merchants for its ability to enhance customer engagement, streamline support, and boost sales.

• Increased Sales and Conversion Rates: Businesses report significant increases in sales, attributed to personalized product recommendations, proactive engagement features like AI Nudges, and improved customer experiences.
• Average User Rating: Manifest AI receives largely positive feedback from users, primarily highlighted through testimonials on their website and reviews on platforms like the Shopify App Store. Manifest AI holds an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on the Shopify App Store, based on 35 reviews.
• G2 Reviews: Users on G2 praised Manifest AI for its effectiveness in improving customer engagement and providing personalized shopping experiences on Shopify platforms.
• Reduction in Support Workload: Merchants have reported significant decreases in customer support inquiries. For instance, Guduchi Ayurveda noted an 85% reduction in support dependency after implementing Manifest AI.
• Ease of Implementation: Users appreciate the platform’s seamless integration with Shopify and its user-friendly interface.

Success Stories

Manifest AI’s impact is further illustrated through personal stories shared by users:

• Icy Bear Dental: This UK-based dental brand integrated Manifest AI to enhance its customer service during peak seasons. They reported that the AI assistant transformed their operations, ensuring seamless customer care with prompt support.
• Tumbleweed Plants: After several months of using Manifest AI, this merchant experienced a significant boost in customer engagement and sales. They praised the proactive support team and the continuous improvements made to the app’s features.
• Ugaoo: An Indian e-commerce brand, Ugaoo, found that Manifest AI simplified their user journey and provided prompt, proactive assistance during the integration process.

Growth & Future

Challenges and Risks

• Competition: The AI and chatbot market is dynamic and competitive, requiring continuous innovation to stay ahead.
• Data Privacy and Security: Addressing concerns related to data privacy and security is crucial for maintaining customer trust.
• AI Content Quality: Ensuring the quality, accuracy, and nuance of AI-generated content requires ongoing refinement and human oversight.
• Platform Dependency: Reliance on the Shopify platform creates potential vulnerability to changes in Shopify’s market share or policies.

Future Plans

• Ambitious Growth Targets: Aiming for five to seven-fold revenue growth in the near future, with a target of $10 million in revenue by December 2025.
• Global Expansion: Leveraging existing multilingual capabilities to target a diverse international audience.
• Long-Term Vision: Parent company BIK aims to become publicly listed within the next five years, indicating a strong drive for expansion and market presence.

Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Reimagine the Familiar: Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo. Manifest AI reimagines the online store, shifting from static pages to dynamic, AI-driven interactions. What familiar concept in your industry can you revolutionize?
• Solve a Silent Crisis: Address the problems customers don’t even realize they have. Manifest AI tackles the 96% bounce rate, a silent killer for e-commerce. What hidden pain point can you alleviate for your target market?
• Turn Every Interaction into a Sale: Manifest AI’s chatbot sees every question, every click as an opportunity to guide, engage, and ultimately, sell. How can you transform your touchpoints into revenue-generating interactions?
• Embrace the Power of ‘Why Not?’: Manifest AI challenges the necessity of traditional websites in the age of AI. Don’t be afraid to question conventional wisdom. What ‘truth’ in your industry can you disrupt?
• Build for the Future, Today: Manifest AI anticipates the future of online shopping, where AI guides every step. Don’t just meet current needs, anticipate future ones. What will your industry look like in 5 years? Are you building for it?