--- title: Two 21-year-olds built an AI that runs online stores description: Siml, founded by two 21-year-old dropouts, is an AI system that takes full operational custody of online stores rather than just assisting with tasks. It runs... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/two-21-year-olds-built-an-ai-that-runs-online-stores-ykk3zvn1j twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Two 21-year-olds built an AI that runs online stores | daily.dev og:description: Siml, founded by two 21-year-old dropouts, is an AI system that takes full operational custody of online stores rather than just assisting with tasks. It runs... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/two-21-year-olds-built-an-ai-that-runs-online-stores-ykk3zvn1j og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/yKK3zVN1J.png og:image:alt: Two 21-year-olds built an AI that runs online stores og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Two 21-year-olds built an AI that runs online stores **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 9 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Siml, founded by two 21-year-old dropouts, is an AI system that takes full operational custody of online stores rather than just assisting with tasks. It runs support, advertising, pricing, and listings autonomously, and also structures store data so AI shopping agents can find, evaluate, and purchase products on a buyer's behalf. The founders point to Adobe data showing AI-referred shoppers now convert 42% better than paid search, and cite new US customs rules requiring per-shipment duty calculations. Siml reports over 1,000 stores using the platform, with an execution layer that simulates and audits irreversible actions like refunds and price changes before committing them. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much better do AI-referred shoppers convert compared to paid search on US retail sites? AI-referred visitors to United States retail sites converted 42% better than paid search and email traffic by March 2026, with revenue per visit 37% higher, according to Adobe Analytics. This is a reversal from March 2025, when AI-referred visitors converted 38% worse than paid search and email, and traffic from AI sources grew 393% year over year in the same period. _Track how ai-driven shopping traffic is reshaping conversion benchmarks by following commerce and agent news on daily.dev._ ### What changed with the US de minimis exemption for imported packages and how does it affect e-commerce sellers? The United States suspended the de minimis exemption in 2025 and confirmed in February 2026 it continues with no restoration date, meaning roughly four million packages a day now require formal customs treatment. Sellers must classify products, state country of origin and material description, and recalculate landed cost per shipment rather than per season, which most small sellers are not equipped to handle. _Sellers navigating shifting customs and margin rules can follow related commerce and logistics coverage on daily.dev._ ### What is Adobe's machine readability score for retail product pages and why does it matter for AI shopping agents? Adobe scored retail product pages at just 66% machine readability, meaning roughly a third of the content on typical product pages cannot be parsed by the AI models that increasingly refer shopping traffic. Since two centuries of commerce optimized products for human readability rather than agent readability, merchants who structure listings for agents first gain an early advantage as agentic commerce traffic grows. _Developers building agent-facing product data can track structured commerce standards discussions on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Simile raises $200M to survey AI ‘twins’ of real consumers](https://daily.dev/posts/simile-raises-200m-to-survey-ai-twins-of-real-consumers-numqbgzfv) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ecommerce](https://daily.dev/tags/ecommerce), [#autonomous-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/autonomous-systems) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/two-21-year-olds-built-an-ai-that-runs-online-stores-ykk3zvn1j) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Two 21-year-olds built an AI that runs online stores","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-21-year-olds-built-an-ai-that-runs-online-stores-ykk3zvn1j","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-21-year-olds-built-an-ai-that-runs-online-stores-ykk3zvn1j"},"datePublished":"2026-08-21T17:31:12.385Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:21:21.857Z","description":"Siml, founded by two 21-year-old dropouts, is an AI system that takes full operational custody of online stores rather than just assisting with tasks. 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