Retail and Electronic Commerce in the Era of Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Novel RAI-CE Theoretical Framework for AI-Driven Consumer Ecosystems

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is reshaping the global retail and e-commerce industry. Traditional e-commerce platforms primarily rely on search, recommendations, and digital marketing to drive consumer decisions, while the emergence of generative AI enables consumers to obtain personalized product recommendations, intelligent shopping advice, automated content generation, and virtual consumption experiences through natural language interaction, thereby changing the mechanism of retail value creation. Existing research largely focuses on the technical applications of generative AI, lacking a theoretical framework for explaining the overall retail and e-commerce ecosystem. Therefore, this paper proposes the RAI-CE (Retail Artificial Intelligence–Consumer Ecosystem) theory, constructing a five-dimensional theoretical model of "AI generation capability—consumer trust—personalized experience—value co-creation—business performance." This theory posits that generative AI enhances the efficiency of information interaction between consumers and platforms, enabling consumer value co-creation and ultimately improving the business performance of retail enterprises. This paper further analyzes the application value of this theory in scenarios such as intelligent recommendation, intelligent customer service, digital marketing, virtual shopping, and cross-border e-commerce, providing new theoretical basis and practical reference for the future digital transformation of retail.