Cordial, a leader in enterprise messaging and customer engagement, has joined the Shopper Context Protocol (SCP) — an emerging open standard designed to preserve shopper intent and context across AI-powered ecosystems. The move positions Cordial at the forefront of a marketing shift where AI agents, not humans, increasingly drive purchase decisions.

The announcement coincides with Cordial’s new report, The Intent Divide, which highlights a troubling gap between what brands measure and what consumers actually mean. The report reveals that 40% of marketers lose revenue due to misread intent, while nearly half of consumers lose trust when brands get personalization wrong.

Fixing the Missing Layer Between Attention and Transaction

Earlier this month, OpenAI, Stripe, and Shopify launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), enabling AI assistants to autonomously complete transactions. But ACP left one major gap — context.

While ACP defines how an agent executes a purchase, it doesn’t carry over who the shopper is, what their past interactions were, or what motivates their buying decisions. Enter SCP.

The Shopper Context Protocol acts as the connective tissue between attention and transaction. It allows preferences, loyalty data, and behavioral intent to travel safely between AI agents, channels, and retailers — ensuring personalization remains intact in the era of agentic commerce.

“Marketers don’t just need to reach people. They need to recognize them,” said Matt Howland, President of Cordial. “SCP gives AI the context to do that safely, so brands can show up inside agent environments with the same empathy and relevance they’ve earned elsewhere.”

AI Has Collapsed Curiosity Into Conversion

According to The Intent Divide report, the marketing funnel as we know it is disappearing. AI-driven agents are compressing the path from curiosity to conversion, often leaving brands struggling to keep up.

Some key findings from Cordial’s study include:

• 1 in 3 consumers already use AI-powered agents for product research or shopping.

• 64% of marketers admit their data is used only for planning, not real-time decision-making.

• 47% have no strategy for how their brand will appear in personal AI agents like ChatGPT or Perplexity.

• 43% say misreading intent destroys trust long before it hits revenue.

“The funnel isn’t shrinking — it’s collapsing,” said Jeremy Swift, CEO of Cordial. “Brands that can’t carry context into these new agentic environments will lose visibility at the moment that matters most — the moment of intent.”

SCP: A Protocol, Not a Platform

Unlike proprietary tools, the Shopper Context Protocol is an open, privacy-preserving standard built for interoperability. It works across agentic ecosystems and brand-owned systems using a three-layer structure:

• Discovery Layer (ACP/Product Feed): AI searches for relevant products.

• Context Layer (SCP): Shopper history, preferences, and intent data.

• Transaction Layer (ACP/AP2): Checkout and payment execution.

Retailers can enable SCP support through DNS records, similar to how MX records function in email. This allows AI assistants to securely query shopper context through OAuth-like permissions. Implementation takes 2–4 days, requires no fees, and is compatible with any AI environment.

Redefining Personalization in the Agentic Era

By joining SCP, Cordial signals its commitment to a context-aware marketing future, where personalization doesn’t end when AI takes the wheel. As agentic commerce scales, SCP could become the backbone that keeps consumer trust intact — ensuring intent, not just interaction, drives the next generation of digital experiences.

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