That's agentic commerce. AI software acts on your behalf to shop, compare, and buy without you clicking through websites or entering payment information for each transaction. You set preferences and spending limits. The agent operates within those boundaries.
The technology uses large language models to understand requests, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to access product catalogs and payment systems, and machine learning to improve recommendations over time. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon, and Google have all launched or have plans to launch agentic commerce platforms (see Links to Watch below) in 2025. The agents can handle simple tasks like grocery reordering or complex ones like researching neighborhoods when you relocate.
Advantages
Time savings: You delegate research, comparison, and execution to software. No browser tabs, no manual price checks.
Price optimization follows: Agents scan thousands of retailers instantly and find better deals than human shoppers typically locate. They monitor price drops and act when conditions meet your preset criteria. Some negotiate pricing directly.
Personalization improvements through pattern recognition: Agents learn your preferences, budget constraints, and purchase history. They filter options against your actual behavior rather than generic demographic data. Recommendations get more accurate over time.
Cart abandonment drops: Friction disappears when agents complete multistep processes automatically.
Disadvantages
Trust gaps: Only 24% of US consumers feel comfortable letting AI complete purchases, according to Bain research. Liability remains unclear when an agent makes an unauthorized or incorrect purchase. Who pays when the bot orders the wrong item or books a nonrefundable flight you can't use?
Fraud risks: Agents can be tricked by fake listings, manipulated reviews, or spoofed sellers. Payment credentials become more vulnerable when stored for autonomous access. Data poisoning can skew agent decisions across many transactions.
Merchant disintermediation: Retailers lose direct customer relationships when agents make data driven purchase decisions. Brand loyalty weakens. Small and midsize retailers face higher costs to optimize product data for machine readability.
Pricing pressure increase: Agents search for the best deals automatically, which forces margins down across categories. Impulse purchases decline because agents buy only what you need.
Privacy concerns: Agents require extensive behavioral data to function effectively. Transparency about data collection varies. Regulatory frameworks lag behind the technology.
You'll need parallel shopping systems: one for humans, one for bots: The transition period creates complexity without guarantees that consumer adoption will follow.
Links To Watch
Here are links to some major agentic commerce platforms:
Visa Intelligent Commerce: https://corporate.visa.com/en/products/intelligent-commerce.html
Mastercard Agent Pay: https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/artificial-intelligence/mastercard-agent-pay.html
PayPal Agentic Commerce (PayPal.ai) https://paypal.ai/
Amazon Buy for Me: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-shopping-app-buy-for-me-brands
Google AI Mode Shopping: https://blog.google/products/shopping/google-shopping-ai-mode-virtual-try-on-update/
Some Notes On These: Amazon's Buy for Me is currently in beta testing with limited users. Google's agentic checkout feature was announced at I/O 2025 but has not fully rolled out yet.
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