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Artificial intelligence is beginning to change not simply how consumers shop, but how they discover products, compare offers and ultimately decide where to spend.
Brazil’s AI shoppers
Brazil offers a particularly striking glimpse of what that future could look like. The 2026 Global Digital Shopping Index: Brazil Playbook, commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions and produced by PYMNTS Intelligence, finds that Brazilian consumers now average 67 “digital shopping days” per month — equivalent to 2.2 different digital shopping activities each day and an 8% increase from 2024.
AI Becomes a New Gateway to Commerce
Perhaps the most significant change is occurring at the beginning of the purchasing journey.
Some 53% of Brazilian shoppers used AI during their most recent online purchase. ChatGPT’s role in product discovery has risen particularly sharply, from just 2% of searches in 2024 to 32% in 2026. Meanwhile, Google’s share declined from 79% to 63%.
This matters because AI users are also among Brazil’s most commercially active consumers. They record 38 buying-related digital shopping days each month, compared with an overall average of 27. Daily mobile browsers are even more active, recording 40 buying days.
For merchants, the implication is significant. Product discovery is increasingly taking place beyond their own websites and apps. Product descriptions, prices, availability and other commerce data therefore need to be accessible not only to people and search engines, but increasingly to AI platforms and agents.
Yet merchants appear poorly prepared. Just 15% have data that an AI agent can read, while only 21% can identify when a sale originated from an AI platform.
Payments Remain Critical to the Shopping Decision
AI may be changing discovery, but payments continue to determine conversion.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Brazilian consumers say knowing that their preferred payment method will be accepted influences where they shop. PIX now accounts for around one-quarter of purchases, underlining the importance of supporting local payment preferences alongside cards.
Payment acceptance is also becoming part of the physical shopping journey. Around a quarter of Brazilian consumers check payment acceptance on their phones while inside a store, compared with 16% in the US.
From AI Assistance to Agentic Payments
The next transition is from AI helping consumers make decisions to AI acting on their behalf.
The appetite is already considerable: 70% of Brazilians expect to use an AI shopping agent within two years. Consumers are particularly willing to delegate cumbersome activities, with 56% prepared to hand agents responsibility for loyalty and promotions and 51% for returns. Only 34%, however, are currently prepared to allow an agent to authorise payments.
That distinction could define the development of agentic commerce. Consumers appear increasingly comfortable allowing AI to find, compare and recommend, but considerably more cautious about surrendering control of the wallet.
For payment providers and merchants, the opportunity therefore extends beyond simply enabling AI transactions. The emerging challenge is to create a trusted infrastructure in which consumers can determine what an agent can buy, how much it can spend and which payment credentials it can access.
Brazil suggests the intelligent shopper has already arrived. The race is now on to build the intelligent payment infrastructure capable of serving them.
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