AI Agents: The New Shoppers Changing Commerce Forever

We’re entering a new phase of commerce, and it’s a big one. Shoppers are starting to hand the work over to artificial intelligence agents. Not just the search or recommendations, but the whole shopping process.

Instead of scrolling, filtering and comparing tabs, shoppers will simply tell an AI agent what they want. “Find me a lightweight winter jacket under $150.” The agent takes it from there, scanning brands and retailers, factoring in preferences, and coming back within minutes with a curated short list that actually makes sense.

In that world, the winners won’t be the retailers with the loudest ads. They’ll be the ones that make it incredibly easy to go from “that looks good” to “order placed.” One click. No friction. No second-guessing.

This Isn’t Sci-Fi. It’s Already Happening

Agentic commerce isn’t futuristic speculation. It’s the next step in how people already shop.

Morgan Stanley estimates that nearly half of U.S. online shoppers could be using AI agents by 2030, driving an additional $115 billion in e-commerce sales. And we’re already seeing early signals today. On Cyber Monday, AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites jumped 670 percent, according to Adobe Analytics. The same data reveals that between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1, 2025, AI traffic spiked 760 percent.

That tells us something important. AI is no longer just a discovery tool. It’s starting to deliver meaningful commercial results, at a time when growth has never been more critical for retailers.

Convenience is Now the Currency of Commerce

At its core, agentic commerce is driven by convenience. With the rise of agentic AI,  merchants will need to ensure their product catalogs are easily discoverable by AI agents. Over time, we will see changes in how product catalogs are displayed to both consumers and AI agents via AI interfaces. As discovery becomes effortless, everything else will need to keep up.

That’s where checkout becomes the make-or-break moment. Frictionless payments aren’t a "nice to have" anymore. They’re the expectation.

In a recent NMI survey, 74 percent of millennial parents said they’re more likely to shop online when retailers offer frictionless checkout options like digital wallets or one-click payments. Three-quarters said convenience is worth paying extra for. And more than half admitted they abandon carts because checkout feels clunky or time consuming.

Now imagine that same shopper who found the perfect product in seconds with an AI prompt. Are they really going to tolerate a slow, awkward checkout flow? Not a chance. In the agentic era, the gap between “almost bought” and “bought” comes down to whether checkout feels invisible or irritating.

Set it and Forget it is the New Bar

For consumers who are strapped for time, juggling busy schedules and tight budgets, agentic commerce has real appeal. It means less time searching, more confidence in the purchase decision, and fewer abandoned carts — especially when the alternative is waiting in long lines at a store.

As we look ahead to 2026, AI agents will increasingly kick off the shopping journey. However, retailers can’t stop there. The final step has to deliver the same level of simplicity and unmatched convenience as the first.

Those that do will be ready for the next stage of agentic commerce, where multiple agents work together behind the scenes, handling discovery, comparisons and checkout autonomously without the consumer ever needing to worry about it. When that happens, the retailers that win will be the ones that removed friction long before the consumer ever noticed it was there.

In a world where shopping is automated, convenience isn’t just a competitive advantage. It’s the price of entry.

Peter Galvin is chief growth officer at NMI, a global leader in embedded payments infrastructure.