AI-POWERED INNOVATIONS IN E-COMMERCE AND THEIR EFFECT ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

E-commerce platforms integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to enhance business performance metrics across various dimensions. This study aims to assess AI-powered innovations in the Nigerian e-commerce and their effect on business performance. The study focused on AI-driven personalization, AI-powered automation, and AI-enabled fraud detection. The study employed survey research design which involves the use of structured questionnaire to collect data from online shoppers. The selection of the participants was based on purposive sampling technique. 50 copies of questionnaire were administered to Nigerian online shopper, 41 copies were dully filled and considered valid for the purpose of this research. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and linear regression. Findings revealed that AI-driven personalization has a significant positive effect (β = 0.386, t = 2.610, p = 0.013) on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also, AI-enabled fraud detection has a significant positive effect (β = 0.437, t = 3.036, p = 0.004) on customer security and trust. However, AI-powered automation has an insignificant positive effect (β = 0.270, t = 1.752, p = 0.088) on operational efficiency and customer engagement. The study concludes that AI does not only improve business performance, it also nurture customer relationship management, build customer retention, and helps e-commerce businesses to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. Thus, the study recommends that E-commerce platforms should improve the functionality of AI-driven automation tools.