The agentic AI marks the future of e-commerce

The data from a report recently published by VISA reveal a profound shift in trend in e-commerce: almost 40% of consumers have made purchases they would not have considered without the intervention of an AI.

But the sector faces a new revolution driven by AI agents.

These systems not only recommend products to us, but we are facing tools capable of deciding, comparing, and executing transactions on behalf of people and companies.

That leap changes the market logic. From the traditional B2C or B2B model, we move to a B2AI scenario, in which Artificial Intelligence ceases to be a mere intermediary and begins to behave as a true economic actor.

The implications of this change are profound: it will no longer be enough to design algorithms that persuade consumers; those same algorithms will also have to learn to interact with their new clients: other algorithms.

In that context, the logic of marketing also evolves. Companies will no longer design messages for people, but also for systems that compare, value, and decide. That forces thinking about products, prices, and services from a double perspective: that of the human consumer and that of the digital agent acting on their behalf.

The impact of this new paradigm is not only technological, but affects other aspects, mainly economic and legal.

In fact, this debate about the autonomy of AI and the legal validity of automated decision-making by algorithms has already been repeatedly addressed in the field of competition law and data protection. Now it becomes the center of the debate about the future of e-commerce.

That is to say, if a growing part of purchasing decisions is going to be delegated to automated systems, the focus will no longer be only on user experience, but on the very architecture of the decision. Or, put in other words, not only is the channel transformed, but the process by which the purchasing will of people and their new digital interlocutors is formed.

It is here when the new dichotomy arises: companies must choose between efficiency or autonomy. Because consumers seem willing for AI to compare prices or apply discounts; but they hesitate —and rightly so— when it comes to

of ceding total control of spending; especially at this time, in which online fraud is one of the main threats for internet users.

In this sense, once we delve into this new negotiation environment between algorithms, the trust that sustains commerce in general (and e-commerce in particular) ceases to be a reputational attribute to become infrastructure.

At this point, new questions arise: Who guarantees that an agent acts in the best interest of its user? How to exercise the right of withdrawal? How are these decisions audited? What happens when two artificial intelligences reach agreements that no person would have accepted? What new cybercrimes will develop in light of this new scenario?

"The history of digitalization is full of examples in which the speed of adoption has surpassed regulatory reflection"

Furthermore, as is usual in this type of digital transformation phenomena, an evident generational change is observed. Younger consumers not only accept this delegation to AI agents, but integrate it naturally into their behavior. For them, AI is not an external tool, but an extension of their decision-making capacity, which allows anticipating a future in which cultural resistance to this agentic AI model will be increasingly less.

However, we know that the fact that technology allows something to be done does not imply that it should be implemented without reservations or guarantees. The history of digitalization is full of examples in which the speed of adoption has outpaced regulatory reflection.

Given this new horizon of markets mediated by machines, the role of institutions —especially financial ones— and of consumer protection authorities, will be decisive to achieve the necessary trust that allows the development of this technology for the future.

If trade has always been an expression of human will, then, under what conditions will AI agents participate and what will be their new role in the market?

In view of the above, we can conclude that, if artificial intelligence stops assisting consumers to become one of them, AI agents will not be limited to accelerating innovation, but rather they must be designed to coexist with rules that protect the consumer and their decision-making autonomy, maintain competition, and preserve trust in the market.