AI can find the sweater, compare prices and read hundreds of reviews before a shopper finishes a cup of coffee. Getting that sweater through checkout is where the trip gets complicated.
“Will the 2026 Shopping Season Go Agentic?,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report, examines who could control the next stage of digital shopping. It draws on proprietary consumer, merchant and acquirer research conducted between September 2025 and August 2026. The latest survey includes 2,061 U.S. consumers and 60 U.S. retail merchants.
Consumers already use AI to find products and narrow their choices. Merchants see those AI-informed shoppers arrive at their websites and stores. However, the market still needs clear rules for payment, identity and permission. Businesses also need to decide which products agents can see, which terms they receive and who covers the loss when an automated purchase goes wrong.
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In “Will the 2026 Shopping Season Go Agentic?,” learn how:
- Price has become the agent’s biggest assignment. Forty-six percent of AI-assisted shoppers used the technology to find the best price or deal. Another 53% say a lower price could persuade them to leave a large marketplace and buy from a brand’s website.
- Merchants plan to build a separate shelf for AI agents. Only 28% would offer agents their full product range on the same terms available through other channels. One-third would offer the full range with different prices, promotions or delivery choices. Another 28% would limit agents to selected products.
- Responsibility could become the biggest fight at checkout. Ninety-three percent of merchants say the AI or agent provider should cover the loss when an agent makes the wrong choice. Eighty percent also expect that provider to verify the agent’s authority before it acts.
Consumers have embraced AI help while keeping control of their money. They want tools that save time, protect their choices and pause before making a major decision. That creates an opening for merchants, wallets, banks and card networks that already hold consumer trust.
The report also examines emerging systems from Mastercard, Visa, Google, OpenAI and Stripe. These efforts could help merchants identify approved agents and confirm what a shopper allowed them to buy. They could also keep reusable card details away from the AI app.
Retailers, payment providers and AI companies can’t afford to treat agentic commerce as a distant idea. Download the report to see where consumers are ready to delegate, where they draw the line and which companies could gain the strongest position this holiday season.
About the Report
Every survey figure in this report comes from PYMNTS Intelligence consumer, merchant or acquirer research fielded between September 2025 and August 2026. No public protocol announcement is used as evidence of consumer adoption, merchant readiness or market share; those sources appear only in the infrastructure context section.
Channel shares should be read as the share of consumers naming a main research or completion destination, not as transaction share or a tracked path for the same purchase. Projections to numbers of U.S. consumers are based on the survey incidence applied to the adult population. Where the prose rounds a number, the chart or scoreboard carries the more precise value.
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