P3 Media Launches Forward Deployed Engineering Practice to Help Commerce Brands Adopt, Deploy, and Scale AI

NEW YORK, July 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- P3 Media, a Shopify Platinum Partner specializing in complex ecommerce, point of sale, and unified commerce transformations, today announced the launch of its Forward Deployed Engineering practice, a new service area designed to help mid-market and enterprise commerce brands move from AI experimentation to real operational deployment.

The new practice embeds senior AI-native commerce engineers directly inside client organizations to build production-ready AI workflows, ship commerce features, improve internal efficiency, and train client teams to use AI effectively inside their existing technology environments.

The launch comes as commerce leaders prepare for the next phase of AI adoption: agentic commerce. As AI agents begin to assist with and execute workflows across merchandising, customer service, catalog operations, personalization, marketing, analytics, and internal decision-making, brands will need more than isolated AI tools. They will need integrated systems, clean data, strong governance, and teams capable of deploying AI safely and effectively inside real commerce operations.

As AI adoption accelerates across enterprise businesses, many organizations are struggling with the same challenge: they understand the strategic importance of AI, but lack the internal expertise, operating model, and implementation capacity to deploy it at scale. P3's Forward Deployed Engineering practice was created to close that gap for commerce brands.

"Every executive team is talking about AI and agentic commerce," said David Wagoner, Co-founder and CMO of P3 Media. "But the real opportunity is not just having agents generate content or automate isolated tasks. The opportunity is to redesign how commerce teams build, operate, merchandise, support customers, and make decisions. That requires people who understand both AI and the realities of complex ecommerce operations."

Unlike traditional agency retainers or consulting engagements, P3 Forward Deployed Engineers work as embedded members of the client's team. They participate in standups, work inside client systems, collaborate with internal engineering and business stakeholders, and focus on shipping practical AI-enabled solutions that can be maintained and scaled by the client organization.

The practice includes four core service areas:

• AI Commerce Engineering: Senior Shopify and commerce engineers building AI-native features and workflows directly inside production commerce environments, including personalization, content operations, merchandising support, automation, internal tooling, and agentic commerce use cases.
  
  
• AI Team Enablement: Hands-on training and capability transfer delivered inside real sprint work, helping client teams develop practical AI fluency across prompt design, tool selection, workflow automation, documentation, governance, and agent-assisted operating models.
  
  
• AI Infrastructure for Commerce: Technical architecture, data workflows, model routing, observability, reliability planning, and integration support designed to make AI systems and commerce agents usable in enterprise environments.
  
  
• AI Efficiency Audits: Structured diagnostics that identify where AI and agentic workflows can reduce manual overhead across catalog operations, merchandising, customer service, fulfillment, marketing, and internal decision-making.

"We don't believe AI adoption succeeds because a company buys more tools," added Wagoner. "It succeeds when teams know where AI creates leverage, when the systems are integrated into real workflows, and when people inside the organization understand how to use and extend what has been built. Agentic commerce will only be valuable if brands can connect it to the way their teams actually operate. That is why capability transfer is central to this practice. We are not just building with AI. We are teaching our clients how to build with AI."

P3's Forward Deployed Engineering practice builds on the company's broader work delivering complex Shopify and unified commerce implementations for high-growth and enterprise brands. The agency has supported major transformations across ecommerce, retail, B2B, and omnichannel commerce, with clients and project experience spanning brands such as ALDO Group, David's Bridal, GIII Apparel, Spectrum Brands, Karl Lagerfeld Paris, DKNY, Follett, and Invicta Stores.

The new service area also reflects a shift in how commerce organizations are approaching AI. Early AI adoption was often led by experimentation, isolated pilots, and one-off productivity tools. P3 believes the next phase will be defined by integrated AI systems, agentic workflows, embedded technical leadership, operational change management, and measurable business outcomes.

"Large organizations do not struggle with AI because they lack ambition," said Aanarav Sareen, CEO and Co-founder of P3 Media. "They struggle because AI has to fit into real systems, real governance, real data, and real operating teams. Commerce is especially complex because every AI decision touches customer experience, inventory, pricing, fulfillment, merchandising, and brand trust. As agentic commerce becomes more important, brands will need technical partners who can help them move from theory to production. Our Forward Deployed Engineering model gives clients senior technical capability inside the business, where those decisions actually happen."

P3 designed the practice for organizations that need to move faster than a traditional agency model allows, including brands with stretched internal engineering teams, ambitious AI roadmaps, complex Shopify or commerce architectures, major platform initiatives, or operational workflows that are ready for automation.

Forward Deployed Engineering engagements can begin with a single embedded senior engineer and scale into a larger cross-functional P3 pod as client needs expand. Each engagement is designed around specific business outcomes, such as faster feature delivery, reduced manual workflows, improved data visibility, stronger internal AI capability, agentic workflow deployment, and production-ready AI implementation.

"For commerce leaders, the question is no longer whether AI will matter," said Wagoner. "The question is whether their organization can adopt it in a way that is useful, secure, scalable, and commercially meaningful. Agentic commerce has the potential to change how brands operate, but only if it is deployed with the right architecture, the right workflows, and the right human oversight. That is the problem this practice is built to solve."

The Forward Deployed Engineering practice is now available to qualified mid-market and enterprise commerce organizations.

About P3 Media

P3 Media is a Shopify Platinum Partner specializing in complex ecommerce, point of sale, and unified commerce transformations for high-growth and enterprise-level brands. With a philosophy of deep partnership, technical excellence, and long-term strategic alignment, P3 Media has delivered more than 500 Shopify implementations across retail, DTC, B2B, and omnichannel commerce.

For more information about working with P3 Media, visit www.pthreemedia.com.

Contact Information:
David Wagoner
P3 Media
425-681-0033
[email protected]

SOURCE P3 Media