The Next Frontier of E-Commerce
by Samson Odo, Founder & CTO
Artificial intelligence is becoming a central force in shaping how small businesses operate, how customers discover products, and how commerce flows across developing economies. In Nigeria, the pace of adoption is uneven, but the potential is enormous.
For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the use of AI has gone beyond automation and efficiency, steadily moving towards visibility, relevance, and connection. As traditional marketing channels become more expensive, fragmented, and often inaccessible to businesses operating on tight margins.
AI offers an interesting new pathway: discovery that is contextual, intelligent, and native to the platforms people already use.
Conversation-driven discovery
Search and ads are no longer enough. As customers increasingly engage through chat, social interactions, and voice assistants, the businesses that succeed will be the ones whose products surface organically in the conversations and searches happening around them, without relying solely on paid promotions.
This is especially critical in developing economies where resources are limited and user attention is fragmented. AI-driven discovery can level the playing field, giving small businesses access to potential customers in ways that were previously reserved for those with deep marketing budgets.
Put simply, we're making it possible for business owners to sell their products directly within their customers’ AI assistants — whether on phones, laptops, cars, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, or any other platform. With Paylo, local businesses gain instant, global visibility.
We call this AetherGrid, a proprietary layer of intelligence that surfaces products organically and continuously adapts to how people discover and interact with commerce. It is a new way to think about visibility, accessibility, and opportunity in a rapidly evolving market.
Building for impact
Paylo is being developed with a mobile-first approach, ensuring that both businesses and customers can access the platform seamlessly, no matter where they are or what device they use.
By prioritizing simplicity and accessibility, we make it possible for local businesses to participate fully in the AI-powered discovery ecosystem, while giving customers a smooth, intuitive way to find and interact with products.
AetherGrid-powered discovery and intelligent recommendations are being integrated to help businesses gain visibility naturally, without relying on paid advertisements. Every update, enhancement, and interface decision is designed to directly strengthen the ecosystem for both merchants and users, ensuring that the platform delivers real value from day one.
Join us in shaping the future of discovery
Already, 15 business owners are actively participating in our testing stage, providing invaluable feedback and helping us refine the platform to meet real needs. Their insights ensure that every feature, interface, and experience is designed for the businesses and customers who will use it every day.
If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or developer interested in contributing to the future of AI-powered discovery, we’d love to hear from you.
Join us, test with us, or simply follow along as we continue building solutions that make commerce smarter, fairer, and more accessible for everyone. Business owners ready to increase their visibility are already signing up at partners.usepaylo.com.