There’s a new buyer in the market, and it’s not human.
AI agents — autonomous systems that understand goals, plan steps, and act independently — are no longer just recommending products. They’re starting to complete purchases on behalf of consumers. And the numbers are moving faster than most marketers realize.
The Numbers That Change Everything
Here’s the data that should be on every marketing leader’s radar:
- $20.9 billion in retail spending is estimated to flow through AI platforms in 2026 — almost four times the previous year.
- 73% of shoppers already use AI while shopping.
- 70% of consumers say they’re comfortable with an AI agent completing a purchase for them.
- Only 13% have actually bought something an AI suggested — which makes the trajectory hard to ignore.
- Gartner expects that within three years, 90% of business purchases will be influenced by AI agents.
The consumer readiness is there. The technology is there. The infrastructure is being built right now.
What “Agentic Commerce” Actually Looks Like
Agentic commerce is the shift from traditional e-commerce — where humans browse, compare, and buy — to a model where AI agents act as intermediaries in the customer journey from intent to purchase.
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
- A consumer tells ChatGPT: “Plan my ten-day anniversary trip to Italy. I’m pescatarian and my budget is $5,000.” The AI researches destinations, compares hotels, checks restaurant menus for dietary compatibility, books flights, and presents a complete itinerary.
- Google’s AI Mode shows queries that are triple the length of traditional searches. The fastest-growing query type contains decision-oriented language: “which one,” “which of.” Consumers aren’t just researching with AI — they’re using AI to augment decision-making.
- Shopify made it easy for merchants to be discovered by ChatGPT and other agents. Sephora built an app inside ChatGPT. Walmart and Target are using Google’s interoperability standard for agentic checkout.
The battle for influence is now won or lost across a fragmented decision journey that increasingly runs through channels the brand does not own or control.
The Two Types of AI Buyers
BCG’s research frames this as two distinct decision-makers that brands must now account for:
- Human buyers: Still make most decisions today. They research, compare, ask friends, read reviews. The traditional marketing playbook still applies here.
- AI buyers: Systems that evaluate brands, compare alternatives, and make recommendations — and increasingly, complete transactions. These systems assess trustworthiness, evaluate structured data, and make recommendations based on observable performance, not persuasive messaging.
The critical insight: AI agents don’t just find brands. They evaluate them. They assess trustworthiness, compare alternatives, and make recommendations based on observable performance, not just persuasive messaging.
What AI Agents Look For
When an AI agent evaluates your brand, it’s not reading your tagline. It’s assessing:
- Structured product data: Clean, machine-readable information about what you sell, what it costs, and what it does.
- Cross-platform consistency: Does your brand say the same thing on your website, in reviews, on social media, and in third-party coverage?
- Third-party validation: Reviews, citations, mentions across credible sources. AI systems aggregate and evaluate reviews, complaints, service interactions, and other signals from across the web.
- Performance data: Return rates, customer satisfaction scores, delivery times. AI agents can instantly aggregate and evaluate these signals.
Brands with messy information will lose out to brands with cleaner information. This is not a creative challenge — it’s a data architecture challenge.
What To Do Now
- Audit your structured data. Is your product information clean, complete, and machine-readable? Can an AI system parse your pricing, features, and terms without ambiguity?
- Build cross-platform consistency. Ensure your brand message, product information, and pricing are consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, social media, and third-party platforms.
- Invest in third-party validation. Reviews, expert mentions, and community consensus are the trust signals AI agents use. Actively manage your reputation across platforms.
- Make your content citable. AI systems cite content that is structured, factual, and authoritative. Original data, clear headings, and definitive statements get cited more often than opinion pieces.
- Test early. ChatGPT ads, product feed campaigns, and first-party audience uploads are live. Early advertisers get lower costs and less competition.
The Bigger Picture
PHD and WARC’s latest research estimates that total agent-facilitated consumer spending will triple from $944 billion in 2026 to $3.35 trillion by 2030. The top categories impacted: telecoms & utilities (611% growth), financial services (235% growth), and travel & transport (252% growth).
This isn’t a future trend. It’s happening now. The brands building the data infrastructure, structured content, and third-party validation that AI agents look for will be the ones these systems recommend — and buy from.
The brands that ignore this shift will find themselves invisible in a growing share of buying decisions — even if their traditional marketing looks fine.
The question is no longer whether AI will influence purchasing. It’s whether your brand will be the one AI recommends when it does. Build the infrastructure now, or get bypassed by competitors who did.
We Help Brands Prepare for Agentic Commerce
At The Virtual Marketing Era, we help brands build the structured data, cross-platform consistency, and third-party validation that AI agents evaluate when making recommendations. If you want to make sure your brand shows up when AI buyers are making decisions, book a free strategy call.