Pipe17’s AI-Fueled Growth Signals New Era for Commerce Operations

SEATTLE, WA – January 05, 2026 – As the dust settles on 2025, a year where the global e-commerce market saw modest single-digit growth, Seattle-based Pipe17 has emerged as a significant outlier. The AI-native order operations platform announced a staggering 163% year-over-year increase in order volume, a figure that dramatically outpaces industry averages and points to a profound shift in how brands and logistics providers are tackling the complexities of post-purchase operations.

The company's record-breaking year, detailed in its 2025 review, is not just a story of corporate success but a clear indicator of the market's urgent appetite for modern, intelligent solutions to combat the operational chaos plaguing the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce. While the broader e-commerce sector expanded by an estimated 7-10%, Pipe17's triple-digit growth suggests that its AI-centric approach is resonating deeply with businesses struggling to scale against the limitations of legacy systems.

The Engine of Growth: AI-Native Operations Take Hold

Pipe17’s growth metrics paint a vivid picture of a platform seeing deep adoption. Beyond the headline order volume, the company reported a 7.6x increase in automation engine runs, a 6.3x jump in processed returns, and a 5x growth in purchase and transfer orders. These numbers indicate that customers are not just connecting systems, but are fundamentally re-architecting their workflows to unify forward and reverse logistics, scale B2B operations, and optimize inventory across multiple locations.

"2025 validated what we've been building toward: the operational network for agentic commerce," said Mo Afshar, CEO of Pipe17, in a statement. He defines 'agentic commerce' as an era where AI systems don't just assist but autonomously execute complex tasks across the value chain. "Every metric tells the same story. Brands and 3PLs are moving away from legacy systems and embracing AI-native order operations that reduce costs, accelerate fulfillment, and scale without adding headcount."

This move is a direct response to the increasing pressures on e-commerce businesses. As customer expectations for speed and accuracy rise and supply chains become more fragmented, the manual processes and siloed data of older platforms have become a critical bottleneck. The market for AI in logistics, valued at over $26 billion in 2025 and projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 44%, underscores this industry-wide pivot. Pipe17's performance places it at the forefront of this transformation, turning the abstract promise of AI into tangible operational efficiency.

Pippen and the Rise of the AI Operations Agent

The most tangible manifestation of Pipe17's AI-first strategy is Pippen, its conversational AI agent for order operations. Throughout 2025, Pippen evolved from a novel feature into a core tool for efficiency, evidenced by a 14x increase in monthly conversations and adoption by 70% of the platform's users. Operations teams can now use natural language to ask complex questions, diagnose order routing issues, or even configure automation rules—tasks that previously required specialized knowledge or developer support.

This democratization of data and control is proving transformative for users. "The new Pippen has been extremely helpful. In the past few weeks I've been able to resolve roughly 95% of complex, custom mapping issues and new-customer flows myself," said Elliot Wallace, CTO at fulfillment provider ITB Fulfillment. "Pippen has truly simplified how we operate. It's amazing."

The success of Pippen reflects a broader trend where generative AI is being applied to solve specific, high-value business problems. Instead of simply being a chatbot for customer inquiries, Pippen acts as an expert co-pilot for the operations professionals who manage the intricate flow of orders from click to delivery. This allows them to move faster, reduce errors, and focus on strategic exceptions rather than routine troubleshooting.

Building the 'Internet of Orders' with Open Standards

Beyond internal tools, Pipe17 made significant strides in 2025 toward solving one of the biggest challenges in commerce: the lack of interoperability between a dizzying array of platforms, marketplaces, and fulfillment partners. In September, the company launched the industry's first Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for order management. This technology allows business users within any MCP-enabled AI environment, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to directly query and manage order data without ever leaving their primary interface.

For a global brand like Allbirds, the benefits are immediate. "Allbirds operates across multiple channels with complex fulfillment requirements. The Pipe17 MCP Server gives our teams instant access to operational data without the burden of switching systems or running manual reports," noted Micah Nelson, Product Management Director at Allbirds.

This initiative expanded into a broader, industry-wide effort in November with the launch of the Commerce Operations Foundation. Pipe17, alongside over 70 other vendors and brands, introduced the Order Network eXchange (onX) specification. Built on the same MCP technology, onX aims to create a universal language for how orders, inventory, and fulfillment data move between systems. It is an ambitious attempt to build the foundational plumbing for a truly connected commerce ecosystem.

"Commerce is entering an agentic era where AI systems not only inspire purchases, they complete them," Afshar explained. "The Order Network eXchange provides the industry standard that lets those transactions move seamlessly: from intent to capture to fulfillment and beyond." While the initiative is still in its early stages, it represents a bold vision to replace the brittle, custom-coded integrations of the past with a flexible, universal standard built for an AI-driven future.

Platform Expansion and Peak-Ready Performance

While pushing the boundaries of AI and open standards, Pipe17 also invested heavily in its core platform capabilities to meet immediate market demands. The company significantly expanded its network of pre-built connectors, adding high-growth marketplaces like Temu and SHEIN, and crucial enterprise fulfillment partners including Manhattan WMS and FedEx Supply Chain. This focus on connectivity lowers the barrier to entry for brands looking to expand into new channels or work with new logistics partners.

Performance and feature enhancements were also a key focus. The platform now includes advanced order routing controls like 'Ship in Own Container' (SIOC) and 'All or Nothing Shipping' to optimize fulfillment costs and customer experience. The automation engine was expanded to cover more of the order lifecycle, and comprehensive support for B2B commerce flows was added. Critically, for high-volume merchants, the company delivered a 10x improvement to order ingestion throughput from Shopify, ensuring the platform remains robust and responsive even during the most intense peak sales periods.

Looking to the year ahead, the company shows no signs of slowing down. "2025 established Pipe17 as the operational network for agentic commerce," said Kelly Goetsch, President of Pipe17. "In 2026, we'll continue pushing the boundaries of AI-driven order orchestration, expanding intelligent automation that anticipates issues before they impact customers."