SVP eCommerce & Digital
Ulta Beauty
Josh Friedman oversees Ulta Beauty’s Ecommerce business, including Ulta.com, the Ulta Beauty App, Ulta Beauty Marketplace, and Digital Innovation. His 20-year digital career includes driving double-digit growth and profitability at several multi-billion-dollar retailers, spanning both DTC and omnichannel companies. Josh has a track record of finding the “white space” for organic and inorganic growth. Josh has spent his career leading large and small teams, who have delivered initiatives from omnichannel programs, strategic roadmap planning, assortment strategies, launching analytics platforms, and innovative new associate-facing clienteling apps.
Thursday Jul 23
12:00pm - 12:30pm
What happens when a customer asks an LLM which retailer to buy from — and your brand isn't mentioned? As LLMs and answer engines reshape product discovery, retailers must optimize not just for search – but for AI-generated answers. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) require brands to publish precise, high-volume, structured content that AI trusts and cites.
Increasingly, models rely on sources like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Quora – where a single outdated or negative post can disproportionately influence brand perception. Retailers are facing new risks: AI hallucinations, reliance on outdated or paywalled information, and shrinking first-mover advantage windows. This session explores how brands can audit AI responses, scale and syndicate authoritative product and policy content, and prepare for emerging monetization models. Learn how to ensure your brand is recommended – not misrepresented – when AI becomes the primary interface for product discovery and purchase decisions.
