AI shopping agents are here. No longer a futuristic concept,
these sophisticated tools are already reshaping how consumers
discover, understand, and interact with products, and will soon
revolutionise how we buy them. Crucially, agentic AI capabilities
now also enable the AI agent to perform tasks on behalf of
customers.
Two distinct types of agents are now emerging: customer-facing
agents – where customers use tools like ChatGPT or Google
Gemini to search, compare, and purchase products – and
retailer-owned agents, such as Amazon's Rufus, which operate
within retailers' own ecosystems to improve product discovery,
service, and conversion. Over time, these two types will
increasingly interact, with customer agents surfacing structured
product data provided by retailer agents, comparing images,
features, prices, and availability, and potentially negotiating
prices or delivery windows in the near future. The future of
commerce will increasingly be defined by how
