How AI Agents Are Reshaping the Future of Retail

The way customers shop is undergoing the most fundamental transformation in over a generation. Instead of manually comparing endless options, consumers are increasingly delegating the shopping journey to artificial intelligence agents that can interpret intent, narrow choices, optimize pricing, and in some cases complete purchases on their behalf. This is agentic commerce, and the retailers that treat it as a trend do so at their own risk. 

The Digital Shelf Has a New Gatekeeper 

For years, retail visibility meant winning the digital shelf through SEO, paid placements and optimized product pages. That playbook is no longer enough. Brand discovery is increasingly mediated by AI agents that can synthesize, filter and recommend on behalf of the customer. Customers are still making the final call, but the consideration set they choose from is being curated by a machine. 

A product page optimized for human shoppers may be effectively invisible to AI systems analyzing structured data. An Adobe report found that product pages scored just 66% on AI readability, leaving large portions of content inaccessible to the models driving discovery. Retailers that fail to close this gap risk being excluded from consideration not just by customers, but by the agents acting on their behalf.  

The Uneven Playing Field 

Agentic commerce isn’t showing up evenly across the retail landscape. Larger retailers with deep engineering benches and extensive product catalogs are already investing heavily to make their businesses “AI-readable.” They’re building product data pipelines, enabling real-time APIs and enriching product attributes so AI systems can interpret and recommend their inventory more effectively. 

Smaller and mid-sized retailers face a steeper challenge. Many still rely on platform templates and manual catalog management, making it harder to adapt to AI-driven discovery.  As AI agents prioritize structured data, larger retailers may gain disproportionate visibility simply because their systems are easier for AI to interpret.  

Marketplaces like Amazon, Instacart and Google Shopping are becoming even more influential by controlling the data formats, APIs and, in some cases, the agents themselves. Retailers without direct consumer relationships risk renting visibility from platforms they also compete with. 

Loyalty is Being Disrupted at the Point of Delegation 

Perhaps the most underappreciated consequence of agentic commerce is what it does to brand loyalty. Loyalty has traditionally been built through repeated consumer choices: a familiar logo, trusted experience or habitual reorder. But when consumers delegate decisions to AI systems, those emotional touchpoints weaken. Agents prioritize price, specifications, reviews and availability. Brand affinity doesn't always translate into algorithms. 

This doesn't mean loyalty is dead, but it must be rebuilt differently. Brands that stand out in agentic commerce will structure their data in ways that clearly communicate factors like sustainability credentials, warranties and quality signals. Research predicts that by 2028, 60 percent of brands will use agentic AI to facilitate streamlined interactions. The most forward-thinking retailers are already engineering AI-to-AI relationships, not just consumer-facing ones. 

The Infrastructure Imperative 

Agentic commerce is an infrastructure challenge. Real-time APIs, complete product data and machine-readable content are becoming as important as storefront design once was. Research projects that by 2028, 90 percent of B2B buying will be AI-agent intermediated.  

Where Retail Leaders Should Start 

The urgency is real, but the response doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start with a structured data audit. How much of your catalog is actually usable by AI systems?  

From there, focus on the categories that matter most—high-velocity segments where agent-driven purchasing is already emerging or likely to accelerate quickly. Also evaluate whether pricing, inventory and availability data can be accessed reliably at scale? 

Beyond the technical foundation, retailers also need to ask what makes a brand recommendable to a machine. Whether it’s sustainability credentials, return data or distinctive product attributes, that value needs to be clearly defined and surfaced. 

Retailers don’t need to get everything perfect on day one. But starting now, even with incremental steps, will put distance between themselves and competitors who wait for the market to settle. 

A New Mandate for Retail Leaders 

A large research firm warns that the agentic commerce race is already underway, and not every investment will pay off equally. The retailers best positioned for this shift will be those who act now, not just on technology, but on strategy. That means rethinking brand visibility, customer loyalty and digital merchandising when the shopper on the other side may not be human at all.  

The digital shelf was built for people. What comes next must be built for both. 

Mayank Ranjan is vice president and regional head, Americas, Consumer, Retail and Logistics, Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting.