Agentic AI Is Poised to Disrupt Retail, Even with Cautious Consumers

Agentic artificial intelligence is poised to reshape the way consumers shop online, making agentic commerce strategies critical for retailers, Bain & Co. found in a new report. But while shoppers increasingly use generative AI, around half still say they are cautious about letting AI agents autonomously handle purchases from start to finish.

Generative AI has already changed how consumers find and evaluate products, the firm said, noting that today, 30 percent to 45 percent of U.S. consumers use generative AI for product research and comparison. Additionally, customers are increasingly using AI as a starting point, as 17 percent of unique online shoppers say they will begin their holiday shopping with an AI platform such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, and 30 percent plan to start with Google search, which is now also AI-enabled. Among unique shoppers, 52 percent of millennials and 25 percent of Gen Z say they will use an AI assistant to start holiday shopping.

Agentic AI is ready to emerge as a retail disrupter, Bain also reports, noting that AI now accounts for up to 25 percent of referral traffic for some retailers, though it is still less than 1 percent of total traffic.

Furthermore, of the three types of AI agents—third-party objective agents (e.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity), on-site retailer agents, and off-site retailer agents—third-party agents threaten to disintermediate retailers most, it said, as consumers currently trust retailers' on-site agents three times more, though the trust gap could close as more consumers try third-party agents.

"Agentic AI marks a major shift in retail discovery and loyalty since the rise of search engines," said Aaron Cheris, partner in Bain's retail practice. "These systems are beginning to act independently across the shopping journey, from product research to checkout, creating both disruption and opportunity for retailers. This is the moment to strengthen customer relationships, build trust, and make retailer-value obvious to humans and to algorithms alike."

Winning retailers will strategically decide how to participate in the agentic AI emergence by either building their own agentic capabilities or strategically collaborating with major AI platforms, Bain found. Agility, it added, will be crucial as the rules of engagement evolve.

With AI reshaping the marketing and sales funnel, Bain identifies three strategic, practical moves for retailers to make today:

1. Dig the customer moat. Retailers need to offer exclusive products, loyalty rewards, and value-added services such as installation or protection plans that deepen relationships and create scarcity that AI agents can't easily replicate.
2. Redefine retail media networks. About 65 percent of retail media spending still occurs onsite, which could be at risk if discovery shifts to AI-driven search. Retailers need to test and learn with new ad formats that monetize natural language queries and expand into in-store and offsite media, which now account for 15 percent and 20 percent of retail media investments, respectively.
3. Retain ownership of data and checkout. Retailers must protect first-party data, watermark content, and negotiate data-sharing terms in AI partnerships. Where possible, they should maintain control over fulfillment and checkout to ensure data visibility and pricing accuracy.