What is Agentic Commerce?

What Agentic Commerce Means for the Regular Consumer

My day job involves working for a software company that develops a PIM (Product Information Management) solution. Maybe I will reveal what company that is in future posts, but I'd like to keep this fairly generic and sales free, and that way I may learn a thing or two about any other competitive systems too. The point is that this blog will possibly start off with a bit of a skew toward product content, selling products online and how AI is helping in that process. But I’m just going to meander and see what I uncover and hopefully it might be interesting to someone…

The first big topic that everyone is talking about (in my world) is Agentic Commerce and for the average shopper this represents a shift from "Do It Yourself" to "Do It For Me."

In the current world of e-commerce, the burden of work falls on you. You have to think of keywords, type them into a search engine, open ten different tabs to compare prices, read through reviews to check for quality, manually filter for your size, and finally click through a checkout process.

Agentic Commerce changes this dynamic by introducing AI Agents. Unlike standard chatbots that just answer questions, these Agents have "agency"—the ability to reason, plan, and execute tasks to achieve a goal you set for them.

Here is what this looks like in practice for a consumer:

1. The "Personal Shopper" Experience Imagine you need a gift. Instead of browsing endless categories, you simply tell your AI Agent: "Find a birthday gift for my brother, under $50, something tech-related".

• Reasoning: The Agent understands the constraints (budget, interest, occasion). You may already have told it your shoe size and waist measurement to streamline the next step.
• Planning: It scans catalogs, checks reviews for reliability, and compares prices across different sellers instantly.
• Action: It presents you with the best options—or, if you trust it enough, simply buys the best one for you.

2. Complex Tasks Handled Instantly Agents shine when the request is complicated. If you say, "Book me a flight to Barcelona for Friday morning," the Agent doesn't just show you a list of links. It autonomously compares airlines, finds the best deal that includes baggage, books the ticket, and emails you the confirmation. It acts like a knowledgeable consultant rather than a search bar. It may even handle the rest of the experience by organizing your boarding pass, alerting you to any delays and later managing any insurance claims should they unfortunately arise.

3. Running Errands on Autopilot For repeat purchases, Agentic Commerce offers "set it and forget it" convenience. An Agent can notice when you usually buy cleaning supplies or cosmetics and automatically reorder them so you never run out, handling the transaction in the background.

4. The End of "Tab Fatigue" The most immediate benefit for a consumer is the removal of friction. Because the Agent can read product specifications, check inventory, and understand shipping policies instantly, you no longer need to hunt for this information. The Agent digests it all and provides a direct solution, making the actual act of shopping nearly invisible but highly effective.

It's happening now!

Well, kind of. While we are not yet seeing this agentic concept fully realised, I can assure you it is starting to emerge, at least in the US, where the waves are lapping at the shore.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, OpenAI and Google have produced specifications to enabled sellers to upload their product information. Stripe, Klarna and Mastercard are at the forefront of supporting the transactional side of things to allow machine-to-machine payments, effectively making the shopping cart part of the agentic experience.

Several retail giants (customer-facing agents) have integrated capabilities directly into their apps to move beyond basic search:

• Amazon (Rufus & "Buy For Me") : As of 2026, Rufus has evolved to include a "Buy For Me" feature. It can monitor prices and autonomously execute a purchase when a specific price threshold is met. It can also digitize a handwritten grocery list and populate a cart instantly.
• Walmart : Using the OpenAI protocol, Walmart allows users to build complex carts (multi-item transactions) through conversational agents that understand "standing intents" which are pre-defined, persistent user goals or purposes that an AI system is trained to recognize and respond to, for example "Always keep my pantry stocked with organic milk")
• Shopify (Sidekick & Agentic Storefronts) : In early 2026, Shopify launched "The Renaissance" update. Sidekick is now a proactive agent that manages merchant operations (inventory and promo generation) and distributes product data to third-party agents like ChatGPT or Perplexity for "headless" agentic checkout.

Specialized AI platforms or "agent-first" companies are where many consumers are now starting their shopping journeys:

• Perplexity (Buy with Pro) : Launched in late 2024 and expanded in 2025/2026, this tool allows Pro users to research a product and click a single button to have Perplexity's agent handle the checkout process on a merchant's site.
• Microsoft (Copilot Checkout) : Integrated into the Microsoft 365 and Edge ecosystem, this allows agents to "negotiate" with brand agents and secure delivery slots that fit the user's Outlook calendar as well as complete the shopping cart within the customer conversation.

And finally, many software vendors are implementing solutions to help B2B/B2C enterprises manage their own agentic selling experiences and deliver product information to it:

• Salesforce (Agentforce) : Actively used by B2B and B2C enterprises to automate order management, returns and exchanges. Salesforce agents can now autonomously process refunds and update ERP systems based on a customer's conversation.
• UiPath ("Autopilot" and "Maestro") : These platforms allow enterprises to build custom agents that handle procurement, invoice matching and automated restocking without human intervention.
• Agility PIM : Using its built-in AI Content Generation to upscale creation of answer-optimized product information that is now required to tackle new content strategies such as GEO and AEO.

What does this mean for online sellers?

So this leads to a final point about what it means for you to sell products online, you can no longer just rely on attracting customers to your websites, or even other affiliated or distributor sites. Traditionally this process was done by optimising your content through SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) that sought to rank your product pages as high up the Google search results as possible. But in an Agentic Commerce world your customers may never even set eyes on your product’s pages. So you must seek to be part of the AI conversation rather than a link to your product.

So my journey into this world will cover a bunch of topics that will try to unravel big topics that sellers will need to be aware of as they make this shift (I nearly said "paradigm shift" but I really need to avoid such cliches, they are not funny).

• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO & AEO) : Sellers can no longer just optimize for Google keywords (SEO). They must learn AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO, strategies focused on becoming the "source material" or "cited answer" for AI models like ChatGPT and Perplexity,. This involves structuring content so an AI can easily read, summarize, and recommend it.
• The New "Product Feed" Standard: To sell to an AI Agent, your data must be flawless. OpenAI and Google have released their own specific product feed specifications that require high-frequency updates and new data fields like "Mood" or specific use cases, ensuring the AI understands context, not just specs.
• Agentic AI PIM (Product Information Management): Preparing data manually for AI Agents is impossible at scale. Sellers should explore Agentic AI PIM, where AI tools autonomously clean, enrich, and structure product data to ensure it is trusted by shopping bots.
• Trust and Transparency Signals: In an era where a machine buys on behalf of a human, trust is currency. Sellers will need to explore how to present "Seller Policies" and transparency data (like return rates and privacy policies) directly to AI Agents to ensure they are selected as a "safe" purchase option.