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For more than two decades, e-commerce has been built around a predictable assumption: that the buyer is human, present, and actively persuadable.
Retailers tool up for Agentic Commerce
Product pages, marketing funnels and checkout flows have all been designed to capture attention, influence emotion and prompt a deliberate click.
That assumption is now under strain.
As agentic commerce and artificial intelligence matures, a growing share of purchasing decisions may soon be initiated, evaluated and executed by software acting on a consumer’s behalf.
The implications for retailers — and the payments infrastructure that underpins them — are profound.
Unlike assistive tools such as chatbots or recommendation engines, agentic AI operates with a degree of autonomy.
Given a set of constraints — price, delivery time, specifications or sustainability preferences — an AI agent can scan the market, compare options across merchants and complete a transaction without human intervention. In this model, persuasion gives way to optimisation.
From Persuasion to Machine Readability
For retailers, the immediate challenge is discoverability. An AI agent cannot interpret brand storytelling or lifestyle imagery in the way a human can. Instead, it requires structured, standardised and unambiguous data.
This is forcing a quiet re-evaluation of how product catalogues are designed.
Descriptions once crafted for emotional appeal must now be paired with precise metadata: dimensions, technical specifications, compatibility details, warranty terms, return conditions and real-time availability.
The aesthetic layer remains relevant for human buyers, but it is no longer sufficient on its own.
Many retailers are discovering that their existing systems — optimised for presentation rather than interpretation — are ill-suited to machine-driven selection.
As a result, data normalisation projects that were once deprioritised are becoming strategic priorities, enabling products to be accurately understood and compared by automated buyers.
Payments, Mandates and Responsibility
If product discovery is a data problem, payments present a governance one. Agent-initiated transactions challenge long-standing assumptions about consent, authentication and liability.
Traditional payment flows rely on explicit human actions: a button click, a biometric check, a password.
Agentic commerce introduces delegated authority, where a consumer permits software to transact within predefined boundaries. Determining how that authority is granted, recorded and enforced remains an open question.
Retailers must also consider how to handle disputes when outcomes, rather than intent, become the focus.
If an AI agent makes a purchase that technically meets its mandate but disappoints the customer, where does responsibility sit?
Increasingly, retailers are working more closely with payment providers to address these scenarios, recognising that trust frameworks will matter as much as transaction speed.
Preparing for a Gradual but Structural Shift
The transition to agentic commerce will not be instantaneous. Human-led shopping will persist, particularly for high-consideration purchases. Yet the foundations for machine-mediated buying are already being laid.
Retailers that invest early in machine-readable data, transparent payment authorisation and explainable transaction flows will be better positioned as autonomous purchasing moves from novelty to norm.
In an economy where software may soon shop alongside humans, readiness is no longer optional — it is infrastructural.
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