| Routine purchases such as groceries, medicines and subscriptions are expected to be among the first categories consumers delegate to AI agents.
Younger consumers are adopting AI shopping tools faster, with 27% of teenagers likely to use fully AI-run shopping assistants, against 16% of parents. Retailers will need to make product information, claims and policies machine-readable as AI agents become a new type of customer. Identity, consent, authorisation and liability will become increasingly important as consumers allow AI agents to make purchases on their behalf. |
More than one in 10 online shoppers are expected to routinely use AI agents to purchase products on their behalf by 2030, as artificial intelligence moves from helping consumers make shopping decisions to making purchases for them, according to a new Mastercard report.
The report, A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments, draws on Mastercard research and predictions from four futurists from the US, Europe and Asia. It forecasts that routine purchases such as groceries, medicines and subscriptions are likely to be among the first categories consumers delegate to AI agents.
AI agents are expected to recommend products, compare options, negotiate prices and complete purchases according to rules set by consumers. The report also envisages retailers increasingly having to cater to AI agents as a new type of customer alongside human shoppers.
Mastercard’s survey of 26,000 parents and teenagers aged 13-18 across 13 countries found that teenagers are already using AI for shopping decisions at higher rates than their parents.
About 27% of teenagers said they were likely to use a fully AI-run shopping assistant that could recommend products, choose between options and complete purchases based on rules they set, compared with 16% of parents.
Teenagers were also nearly twice as likely as parents to use AI weekly to find the best price or discount, at 18% compared with 10%.
Trust in AI recommendations is also emerging among younger consumers. About 31% of teenagers said they would trust an AI product recommendation over a friend’s, while 23% said they would trust AI over their parents’ advice.
The survey found that 67% of parents expect AI shopping to define their children’s generation, compared with just 5% who expect it to define their own.
Retailers face a new type of customer
The growth of AI-led shopping could require retailers to change how they present products and interact with customers. AI agents will be able to process large amounts of product information, verify claims, compare customer reviews and assess policies before making purchasing decisions.
Retailers will therefore need to make product information, claims and policies accessible in machine-readable formats, the report said. Sustainability claims, for instance, could need supporting certificates that an AI agent can locate, read and verify.
Loyalty programmes, customer relationships and digital shopping experiences could also need to be adapted to interactions involving AI agents rather than consumers directly.
Trust and authorisation become critical
The shift towards agentic commerce is expected to increase the importance of identity, consent, authorisation and liability as consumers begin allowing AI systems to transact on their behalf.
The report predicts that at least three G20 regulators could issue formal guidance on the registration and monitoring of AI agents by 2030. It also expects payment intent to become increasingly important as systems are able to identify and verify a consumer’s authorisation before a transaction takes place.
Mastercard said agentic commerce is already beginning to emerge, pointing to an end-to-end agentic payment transaction completed in Europe earlier this year with its partners.
The development points to a shift in online commerce in which AI could increasingly handle routine purchasing, while consumers retain control over the rules governing what agents can buy, from whom and under what conditions.
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