Today’s digital-first shoppers are increasingly open to the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) as they navigate online marketplaces for a variety of products, ranging from clothing to groceries. However, a significant number remain hesitant to fully relinquish control over their purchases to AI systems, particularly those developed by platforms like Amazon or Instacart.
The evolution of AI from a mere comparison tool to potential autonomous shopping agents represents the next frontier in eCommerce. These agentic AI systems could utilize users’ payment details, including bank accounts and digital wallets, to make purchases based on predefined parameters, such as spending limits and product preferences. The goal for digital marketplaces is to encourage shoppers not just to research and compare prices, but to automate the buying process, enabling these AI assistants to finalize transactions.
According to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “From Assistive to Agentic AI: Consumers Wade Into Autonomous Commerce,” nearly 70% of U.S. adult consumers expressed willingness to use an AI assistant for at least one routine task. Among them, 69% indicated they would be somewhat comfortable allowing AI to handle meal planning and grocery shopping, while 63% would permit it to manage gift purchasing.
Consumers are often busy, and 49% of those interested in leveraging AI would prefer to delegate both routine and significant purchases to an agentic AI assistant, rather than returning to a merchant’s site or app for transaction completion. However, a notable barrier remains: their comfort with letting AI execute purchases is contingent on the integration of established payment systems. This implies that consumers are more inclined to trust agentic AI when it operates within traditional financial frameworks.
Unlike retailers and marketplaces introducing agentic helpers, traditional financial services have earned decades of consumer trust through robust security measures and oversight for automated transactions. This creates a preference for payment providers over merchants when it comes to trusting AI with autonomous buying decisions. In fact, for those willing to embrace generative AI—a precursor to fully autonomous systems—over 25% of consumers indicated they would trust autonomous AI from their digital wallet providers the most. In contrast, only 16% expressed trust in agents affiliated with the merchants they typically shop with.
This consumer hesitation poses a challenge for merchants eager to integrate agentic AI into their shopping experiences. The grocery chain Kroger is a case in point; in November, the company announced its partnership with Instacart to develop “agentic shopping experiences” for its customers. Kroger’s Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Yael Cosset, highlighted the potential of AI agents to simplify shopping and meal planning, stating it could assist customers in building their baskets and offering personalized meal suggestions.
Amazon, leveraging its cloud computing division Amazon Web Services, finds itself in a unique position. Company executives believe that consumer acceptance of agentic commerce will grow over time. During a recent earnings call, Andrew Jassy, President and CEO of Amazon, remarked on the potential benefits of agentic assistants, suggesting they could fulfill a role similar to that of in-store salespeople.
From the perspective of Etsy, while the current use of agentic AI accounts for a relatively small portion of eCommerce traffic, momentum is expected to build. In a recent earnings call, CEO Kruti Goyal noted that shoppers utilizing agentic AI tend to be more decisive, often arriving ready to make purchases. Executive Chairman Josh Silverman added that he anticipates a complementary relationship between agentic commerce and traditional in-app shopping experiences.
In a bid to standardize the use of AI in retail, Google announced this month the launch of an open-source protocol, aiming to provide a framework for retailers to develop their AI agents without building systems from scratch. This initiative could hasten the integration of agentic-powered commerce, which many see as the logical progression given the current consumer adoption rates. According to the December edition of PYMNTS Intelligence’s Agentic AI Report, 64% of U.S. adults reported using AI for work or personal tasks in the previous year.
Pablo Fourez, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard, described this shift as potentially transformative, indicating it could surpass the transition to mobile commerce due to its implications for the entire shopping experience. However, despite the underlying potential, the widespread adoption of agentic AI in consumer purchasing remains a work in progress.
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