Advisory Focused on

Practice.

Not Theory.

Founded in 2026, this boutique practice brings together commerce operators with deep business and technical expertise — to help companies move from web-based commerce to agent-mediated commerce.

Our clients aren't waiting to see how this plays out. They're building their position in the agentic economy now, while the rules are still being written.

Jacqueline Karlin

Product & Strategy

Anna Hester

Technology & Architecture

Jeanie Zheng

Technology & Commerce Platforms

Azadeh Davari

Leadership Transformation

Edie Oung

Revenue & Economics

Amir Baker

Customer Operations & Trust

Alexis Aimard

Tax & Compliance Technology

Chris Mannion

Talent & Workforce Management

About Us

Jacqueline Karlin

Jacqueline Karlin is the Founder & Managing Partner of Agentic Commerce Advisory, where she advises retail, commerce, and technology leaders on defining customer and competitive strategy for the agentic era, modernizing operating models, and applying AI to drive discoverability, relevance, and growth.

Most recently, she served as Senior Director of AI Product at PayPal, where she led the company's entry into agentic commerce – spearheading R&D partnerships with leading AI platforms and building the framework for PayPal to be trusted and invoked by AI agents through early adoption of MCP servers and agent-to-agent (A2A) protocols. Her work spanned the full customer journey, from AI-driven personalization that anticipates demand to trusted payment experiences at the moment of transaction.

Earlier in her career, Jacqueline held senior product and commerce leadership roles at Meta/WhatsApp, Expedia Group, and Amazon. At WhatsApp, she led commerce, payments, and risk operations for one of the world's largest messaging platforms. At Expedia Group, she led product for core commerce platforms. At Amazon, she led international expansion for Alexa Voice Services and developed financial products for businesses selling across Amazon's marketplaces.

Across more than 17 years in technology, Jacqueline has worked at the intersection of commerce, payments, conversational AI, and marketplace platforms. She has launched global products, forged innovation partnerships across emerging AI ecosystems, and led 0–1 product development that translated technical vision into business growth. She holds an MBA from MIT and serves as an Ambassador for Global Women in AI.

Jacqueline believes agentic commerce is not simply a technology shift – it is a customer experience shift. As AI agents increasingly shape how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products, businesses must rethink how they get found, differentiate their offerings, and earn selection in increasingly automated buying journeys. While the technology is advancing rapidly, she believes the greatest challenge is organizational: defining the right strategy, evolving operating models, and aligning teams to compete successfully in this new environment.

Through Agentic Commerce Advisory, Jacqueline helps organizations translate emerging AI capabilities into practical strategies that drive business growth.

Anna Hester

Anna Hester is a Partner at Agentic Commerce Advisory, where she advises technology, commerce, and enterprise leaders on AI strategy, engineering transformation, and building the platforms, products, and organizations needed to compete in the AI era.

Most recently, she served as a senior technology executive at Microsoft, where she helped shape the company's AI transformation under Copilot. Working within Mustafa Suleyman's organization, she led initiatives spanning AI-powered commerce and payments, including Microsoft's first AI subscription offering, the agentic payments platform developed with Visa, PayPal, and Mastercard, and the checkout and wallet experiences powering millions of Copilot users worldwide.

Earlier in her career, Anna held senior engineering and technology leadership roles across AI, distributed systems, consumer platforms, and commerce infrastructure. She built and led global organizations of more than 300 engineers, product managers, and data scientists, driving platform strategy, engineering execution, and large-scale product delivery while helping organizations modernize technology platforms and accelerate innovation.

Across her career, Anna has operated at the intersection of artificial intelligence, large-scale software platforms, and product engineering. She has led global engineering organizations, delivered AI-powered products used by hundreds of millions of customers, and helped organizations transform emerging technologies into production-ready platforms that create measurable business value.

Anna believes the greatest opportunity in AI lies not only in adopting new technologies, but in building the engineering capabilities, organizational foundations, and product strategies required to turn AI into sustainable competitive advantage. As AI reshapes how software is built and how customers interact with digital products, she helps organizations bridge executive vision with technical execution.

Through Agentic Commerce Advisory, Anna helps organizations accelerate AI adoption, modernize engineering organizations, and build scalable products and platforms that deliver long-term business impact.

Jeanie Zheng

Jeanie Zheng is a partner at Agentic Commerce Advisory, where she advises commerce and technology leaders on building customer-centric digital experiences, modernizing technologies, and applying AI to drive business growth.

Most recently, she served as Vice President of Engineering at Aurora Innovation and previously as Technical Advisor and Distinguished Engineer at Cruise, where she led initiatives spanning commercialization, marketplace partnerships, customer experience, and AI adoption. Her work focused on translating emerging technologies into scalable products, operational capabilities, and measurable business outcomes.

Earlier in her career, Jeanie held senior technology leadership roles at GoDaddy, Wayfair, and Expedia. At GoDaddy, she led the customer-facing commerce platforms supporting millions of small businesses worldwide. At Wayfair, she served as Global Head of Merchandising Technology, leading the systems that power product discovery, supplier onboarding, and marketplace operations across the e-commerce ecosystem. At Expedia, she led engineering teams responsible for core transaction services and commerce platforms supporting multiple travel brands and lines of business.

Across more than two decades in technology, Jeanie has worked at the intersection of customer experience, commerce, marketplaces, technology and organizational transformation. She has helped companies navigate periods of rapid growth, technology modernization, and changing customer expectations while building high-performing teams and sustainable operating models.

Her view is that agentic commerce is not simply a technology shift, it is a customer experience shift. As AI agents increasingly influence how consumers discover products, evaluate options, and make purchasing decisions, businesses will need to rethink how they engage customers, differentiate their offerings, and create value in increasingly automated interactions. While the technology is evolving rapidly, the companies that succeed will be those that remain focused on solving real customer problems and delivering trusted, seamless experiences.

Jeanie brings a practical operator's perspective to the practice. Having led commerce, marketplace, and customer-facing technology organizations across companies ranging from high-growth businesses to global platforms, she helps leaders cut through complexity, identify meaningful opportunities, and build strategies that connect technology innovation to business results.

Azadeh Davari

Azadeh Davari is a partner at Agentic Commerce Advisory, where she advises senior leaders through executive coaching and leadership consulting in moments of growth, transition, and organizational complexity.

She is a Leadership Solutions Facilitator at the Center for Creative Leadership and serves as faculty at the University of San Diego and the University of Hawaii School of Business. Her work focuses on helping leaders translate strategy into execution by aligning leadership, culture, and organizational systems.

Over more than a decade, Azadeh has worked with technology companies, engineers, startup founders, and executives across industries. Her experience spans global institutions, multinational organizations, and high-growth environments, including collaborations with the United Nations, UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO, and leading private-sector companies. Across these engagements, she has supported leaders in navigating complexity, strengthening decision-making, and leading through scale and uncertainty.

A key challenge leaders face today is driving the organizational transformation and leadership alignment required to succeed in the AI era. Azadeh advises executives and senior leadership teams on navigating this transition—from redesigning operating models and aligning cross-functional teams to upskilling the workforce and preparing organizations to compete in the AI economy. Her work focuses on translating AI ambition into practical organizational change and long-term business readiness.

Her work sits at the intersection of executive coaching, organizational consulting, and business strategy. She partners with leaders at inflection points, helping them clarify direction, align stakeholders, and lead adaptive change in environments shaped by rapid technological and organizational shifts. Within the context of agentic commerce, she brings the leadership dimension—supporting executives in evolving how they think, decide, and lead as intelligent systems reshape how organizations operate and create value.

The consistent thread across her work is precision: translating insight into focused action that drives meaningful organizational outcomes.

Azadeh holds a doctorate in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego. She also holds a master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and a certification in Executive Leadership Coaching. Earlier in her career, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Food Science and Technology Engineering and a diploma in Food and Nutrition Security from Wageningen University. She is also an alumna of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

Edie Oung

Edie Oung is a partner at Agentic Commerce Advisory and advises commerce and technology leaders navigating the convergence of payments, personalization, agentic experiences, and modern revenue operations.

Most recently, at PayPal, as Sr. Director of Commercialization Strategy she led strategic planning, growth initiatives, and operational execution across a multi-billion-dollar global commerce business spanning branded checkout, guest checkout, Fastlane, and AI personalization products. Prior to that, she served as General Manager for PayPal Shopping & Honey, overseeing the company’s shopping, cashback, and merchant-funded offers ecosystem during a critical phase of integration and scaling growth following PayPal’s acquisition of Honey. Her work focused on connecting consumer engagement, merchant monetization, and data-driven commerce experiences at global scale.

Earlier roles include Head of FP&A and Business Operations at Honey, where she built operational infrastructure supporting rapid two-sided marketplace growth; Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis at YogaWorks during its transition from private company to public markets; and Worldwide Director of FP&A at Pure Storage, where she was the company’s first FP&A hire and helped build the financial and operational systems that supported hyper growth and IPO readiness. She held various finance leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson and began her career at Deloitte advising Fortune 500 clients across tax, operations, and financial strategy.

With over two decades in fintech, commerce, SaaS, and consumer technology, Edie’s work has consistently centered on building operational foundations behind high-growth businesses — translating strategy into scalable execution across finance, go-to-market, product operations, analytics, and commercial transformation. She has led organizations through IPOs, acquisitions, integrations, and large-scale growth cycles while partnering closely with executive leadership teams to drive long-term enterprise value.

Edie brings broad-based operating expertise to founders, growth-stage companies, and enterprise leaders navigating the next evolution of commerce and AI-enabled customer experiences.

Her view is that AI is fundamentally reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate, and transact with products and services — and that companies will need to redesign not only their technology stacks, but also their operating models, growth systems, and monetization strategies to remain competitive. The shift is already underway: commerce is becoming increasingly personalized, conversational, and automated, while the lines between product, payments, marketing, and customer engagement continue to collapse into unified AI-driven ecosystems. Her expertise will help your business navigate through this new era of autonomous commerce.

Amir Abou Baker

Amir Abou Baker is a partner at Agentic Commerce Advisory, where he advises technology and commerce leaders on building resilient global customer experiences, operating models and regulatory frameworks across Operations, Shared Services, and Product organizations for the AI era.

Most recently, he was Senior Director of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Shared Services at Meta. In this role, he led the global shared services ecosystem responsible for risk mitigation and regulatory compliance across all Meta product launches, ensuring platform maturity for systems serving over billions users. He oversaw the end-to-end tooling development, quality assurance, learning & development, analytics, vendor management, issue management & control management functions.

At WhatsApp, Amir served as Director of Customer Operations for Global Market Operations, Content & Localization. He specialized in scaling high-growth operational footprints, expanding internal teams to over 150 full-time employees, and managing global vendor networks exceeding 3,000 external agents across multiple geographies and 30+ languages. Prior to Meta, Amir held enterprise leadership roles as Director of Global Operations at TaskRabbit (where he built the scalable retail operations model for IKEA), National Head of Member Services at Oscar Health, and Head of 3rd Party Retail Operations for North America at Google, where he incubated and scaled early field support operations for Google’s hardware ecosystem.

With over two decades of operational experience at the world's largest digital platforms, Amir's career has centered on a distinct specialty: building the underlying customer experiences, operational guardrails, and vendor management foundations that allow hyper-scale technology companies to innovate safely. He bridges the gap between technical strategy and frontline execution, transforming complex customer data into actionable product insights while designing human-centric, "people-first" cultures at scale.

His view is that as autonomous agents begin handling transactions and customer inquiries, the traditional playbook for operations, customer experience, and risk compliance is obsolete. When compute costs collide with transaction volume, organizations cannot simply scale by adding headcount or traditional software layers. To survive the transition to an agentic economy, enterprises must rearchitect their operational infrastructure from scratch—building automated, data-validated QA systems, real-time risk mitigation pipelines, and dynamic trust frameworks that account for both human and AI actions.

Alexis Aimard

With 15+ years leading tax strategy and technology for global commerce platforms, Alexis Aimard is Director of Global Tax and Commerce Regulations Platform at Expedia Group, where he leads tax and regulatory enforcement capabilities across one of the world’s largest travel marketplaces — serving travelers in more than 70 countries and supporting a platform that generated $14.7B in revenue and $119.6B in gross bookings in 2025.

His work sits at the intersection of tax, product, engineering, and compliance — translating complex regulatory requirements into scalable platforms that support real-time commerce across jurisdictions. At Expedia Group, he leads product strategy for global tax calculation, tax reporting, and marketplace regulation enforcement services across a multi-brand travel marketplace.

Earlier roles include tax technology and product leadership positions at Lexmark and Hewlett-Packard, where he built and implemented global tax platforms across ERP, e-commerce, and transaction-processing environments. His experience spans VAT/GST, sales and use tax, withholding tax, income reporting, marketplace and supplier compliance, e-invoicing, SAF-T, and cross-border regulatory reporting.

Across his career, Alexis’s work has followed a consistent pattern: making tax and regulatory complexity operationally usable for product, engineering, finance, and business teams. He has helped organizations move from fragmented tax processes to platform-based compliance models — API-first, data-centric, auditable, and designed for change.

His view is that agentic commerce will force companies to rethink tax and compliance at the transaction layer. As discovery, checkout, payments, and customer interaction move into agent-mediated flows, traditional assumptions about seller responsibility, marketplace facilitation, exemption handling, invoicing, and audit evidence will come under pressure.

Most commerce leaders understand that AI will change the customer experience. Fewer have mapped what that means for the compliance infrastructure underneath it. Alexis brings that perspective to the practice: helping leaders design tax and regulatory systems that can keep pace with autonomous, multi-party commerce.

Chris Mannion

Chris Mannion is the founder of Meander, where he helps HR and Finance leaders turn talent data and AI into decisions their executive teams can act on. His operating roots are in high-growth e-commerce, including at Wayfair, where he saw firsthand how talent, cost, and scale collide inside a fast-moving business.

For the past five years, Chris has focused almost entirely on a single question: how AI is reshaping the way HR teams operate, organize, and plan for the future. Through Meander and the Meander Talent Academy, he has built a practitioner community of HR and talent leaders learning to apply AI to real work—from sourcing and screening to headcount and workforce planning. He also publishes widely-followed walkthroughs that turn frontier AI into tools teams can use on Monday morning.

His advisory work pairs that practitioner depth with executive-grade delivery; most recently, he led headcount strategy and analytics through a $1B+ corporate carve-out spanning seven HR systems. He also hosts the Headcount Experts podcast and contributes to the Mass AI Coalition. The throughline across all of it: grounded, finance-anchored answers to what AI actually changes about people plans and people cost.

Focus areas: AI strategy & readiness for HR and Finance · workforce & headcount planning (task-based) · people analytics & talent intelligence · AI-enabled recruiting & TA workflows · org design for an AI-first world.

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