Agora launches live shopping and AI studio for interactive e-commerce

This launch signals a strategic shift as infrastructure providers move up the stack to capture the high-margin live commerce market, which is projected to drive 20% of all e-commerce by 2026. By lowering the technical barrier for multimodal AI and ultra-low latency video, Agora is enabling mid-market retailers to compete with the native shopping features of TikTok and Amazon. The success of this move depends on whether the 30% conversion rate seen in Asian live commerce can be replicated in Western markets through these third-party integrations. Monitor Agora’s upcoming Q2 2026 revenue to see if AI and shopping products can reverse the 4.6% gross margin compression recently reported due to sub-scale product mix.

In late May 2026, Agora reported Q1 revenue of $37.7 million, marking a 13.5% year-over-year increase and the company's sixth consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability. While top-line growth accelerated, gross margins narrowed to 63.4% from 68% in the previous year. Per Investing.com (May 2026), management attributed this compression to higher server costs and the sub-scale nature of new conversational AI products. Despite these pressures, the company launched Agent Studio—a no-code command center for building voice AI agents—to accelerate the transition from pilot programs to full-scale production.

Concurrent market reporting from Straits Research (May 2026) suggests the global live commerce platform market is projected to reach $8.31 billion by 2034. Adoption is particularly surging in North America, where live shopping sales are expected to hit $68 billion by the end of 2026. Major infrastructure rivals like Bambuser and Sprii are also competing for this volume, but the market remains fragmented between creator-led platforms like TikTok Shop and merchant-led tools integrated into established storefronts.

Strategic technical updates have followed closely; per Agora Docs (May 2026), the company recently released Conversational AI Engine v2.7, which integrated xAI’s Grok and Deepgram for real-time speech-to-text. These updates focus on reducing 'turn-taking' lag to under 100ms, a critical threshold for maintaining the natural flow required for live bidding and customer service interactions. In response to these developments, Agora's CEO Tony Zhao announced plans in June 2026 to purchase up to $20 million in company shares, signalling confidence in the long-term scalability of these real-time engagement verticals.