Agentic commerce: When AI goes shopping for you

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Your shopping wishlist is AI’s to-do list.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Shopping online often means searching for products, comparing prices, and deciding what to buy. Artificial intelligence can help with those tasks, and it can even make purchases for you. For example, you can ask an AI assistant to find a carry-on suitcase that meets airline size requirements and fits your budget. Generative AI might suggest several options and provide links to compare them. But an AI shopping agent can go a step further: It can find a suitable suitcase and buy it with your permission.

This shift from “help me choose” to “buy this for me” is at the heart of agentic commerce, a form of online shopping in which AI agents can research products and complete transactions on behalf of consumers and businesses.

Agentic commerce is an application of agentic AI that allows consumers and businesses to delegate shopping and purchasing tasks to AI agents. Depending on the agent’s capabilities and the permissions you grant, it can research products, compare prices, and complete transactions with little additional input from you.

The independence of an AI shopping agent can vary. One agent might find an item and wait for your approval before purchasing it. Another might be authorized to compare prices among retailers and automatically reorder household supplies when it finds an offer that meets your requirements.

Agentic commerce protocols permit AI agents, retailers, and payment providers to exchange information and complete transactions.

Suppose you’re shopping for hiking boots. You might instruct an AI shopping agent to find a pair in your size, within your budget, deliverable by a certain date, and with free returns. Rather than simply providing links to retailers, the agent could take several steps to complete the purchase. It could:

Allowing an AI shopping agent to find a pair of boots is one thing. Allowing it to purchase them using your credit card is another. That’s why authorization is an important component of agentic commerce.

Payment systems can allow AI agents to make purchases without giving them unrestricted access to your credit card or bank account. Depending on the system, you may be able to limit an agent’s purchasing authority to a particular retailer, dollar amount, transaction, or period.

A payment token allows an AI agent to initiate an authorized transaction without accessing your underlying payment information. Tokens can be restricted to a specific purchase from a particular retailer, preventing the agent from using them to make unrelated purchases.

Convenience is one of the most obvious benefits of agentic commerce. Shopping can involve searching multiple websites, opening dozens of browser tabs, comparing specifications, checking shipping costs, and entering the same payment and address information repeatedly. A shopping agent can perform much of that work for you, potentially saving considerable time.

Agents can also continuously monitor prices and availability. Instead of checking every few days to see whether airfare, a television, or a pair of shoes has fallen below your target price, an agent can watch for a price decrease and make the purchase when your conditions are met.

Agentic commerce could also make complicated purchases easier to manage. An agent could consider several requirements simultaneously, including dimensions, compatibility, warranty terms, shipping time, and return policies.

The same autonomy that makes AI shopping agents useful also creates risks. An agent could misunderstand your instructions, make decisions based on inaccurate information, or purchase the wrong product. AI agents also interact with websites and other online services, potentially exposing them to cybersecurity threats.

One such threat is agent hijacking, a form of attack in which malicious instructions are hidden in websites, emails, or other information an agent might encounter. If the agent follows those instructions, it could take actions you never authorized, including making purchases or exposing personal information.

Consumer protections raise additional questions. Federal laws limit your liability for certain unauthorized credit card transactions and electronic fund transfers. But determining whether a purchase is unauthorized may be more complicated when you’ve given an AI agent permission to spend money on your behalf. The protections that apply could depend on the payment method, the authority you granted, and the circumstances of the transaction.

Agentic commerce could save you time and effort by allowing an AI shopping agent to handle everything from comparing products to making purchases. But giving an agent permission to spend your money means trusting it to make decisions you would otherwise make yourself.

Before allowing an AI shopping agent to make purchases, take time to review the terms of service, the retailer’s return policies, and your payment method’s protections. Be sure you understand what the agent is authorized to do and how to dispute a purchase if something goes wrong.