Shoppers Say AI Agents Can Help With Some Tasks
As tech companies, retailers, brands and online marketplaces rush to activate AI agents so they can browse, choose and even buy products for shoppers, a new survey revealed that U.S. consumers want AI to help them find products and save money. They want AI to make checkout easier, but they also want a "human hand" involved in the final purchase.
The research also showed that parents, millennials and Gen Z consumers are turning to AI more than other demographic cohorts.
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The research was conducted by NMI, the embedded payments solution provider, and was based on a poll of 1,000 consumers. The report, titled "Embedded Payments: Agentic Commerce Reality Check," showed "a significant gap between the industry hype surrounding agentic commerce and the authority consumers are currently prepared to give AI," the report's authors said.
To frame the issue, the researchers noted that consumers are increasingly using AI to begin their shopping journey, such as for discovery; they don't let the technology "finish the job." And while Salesforce reports a 200 percent rise in shoppers using AI as their first step in shopping, NMI's data found that just 11 percent of respondents said they've used it to complete a transaction .
"Consumers are embracing AI as a shopping assistant, using it to find information, discover products and save money, but most are not ready to let it make the final decision or spend on their behalf," the report's authors said, adding that just 10 percent of those polled said they would give AI "full control" of a transaction.
The survey also showed that 45 percent of respondents said they would not trust AI to purchase on their behalf, while 70 percent of respondents said they must be able to review or override AI's decision before a purchase is made. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said they do not trust AI to process payments securely.
Tiffany Johnson, chief product officer at NMI, said the industry is designing for autonomy, while consumers are still asking for assistance. "There's a big difference between using AI to quickly surface the right information to help you choose a pair of shoes and AI taking over the entire shopping journey," Johnson explained. "With back-to-school shopping underway and Labor Day sales around the corner, we expect more consumers to turn to AI to search, compare and find the best deals, but most are still not ready to surrender control of the purchase itself."
Underpinning the avoidance of giving up full control to AI agents is trust.
Johnson said for agentic commerce to move from being an impressive demonstration to an everyday behavior, "earning that permission will matter just as much as building the technology. Consumers need to know that AI understands what they want, stays within the limits they set and cannot spend beyond the authority it has been given. This approach to agentic commerce can help build consumer trust while allowing businesses to make the painful parts of shopping easier, without taking away what people value most: the satisfaction of a good purchase and the sense that they had the final say."
The survey also revealed that shoppers want AI to remove friction in the shopping journey, but not to remove their involvement. The data showed that 53 percent of those polled said they used AI for research or information searches in the past month, while 33 percent of respondents said they used it for shopping or product discovery. "Its most common role remains that of a 'better search engine,' selected by 39 percent of respondents," the report noted.
The report's authors distinguished between tasks that assist consumers and decisions that commit their money, adding that 63 percent of those polled said they would use AI to insert discount codes automatically during checkout. And 59 percent said they are comfortable with AI recommending products, while 58 percent said they would allow AI to fill in their shipping address.
Other notable data points include that 57 percent of respondents said they believe AI can make shopping faster and more convenient, and 56 percent said they would use it to make checkout faster and more seamless.
"That willingness declines sharply as AI begins to make more personal or consequential decisions," the report's authors said. "Fifty-eight percent are uncomfortable with AI recommending clothing sizes based on customer reviews, while 55 percent do not want AI recommending which payment method they should use. Seventy-six percent are uncomfortable with AI completing purchases on their behalf, and only 3 percent currently describe AI as a personal shopper that manages every stage of the shopping journey."
The survey also revealed that parents, millennials and Gen Z are adopting AI-powered shopping more quickly than other demographic groups. "Almost half of parents with children at home, 48 percent, have used AI for shopping or product discovery in the past month, compared with 25 percent of adults without children at home," the report noted. "Parents are also nearly three times as likely to have completed a transaction using AI, at 19 percent compared with 7 percent. Yet only 16 percent of parents would give AI full control over a purchase."
Similarly, the survey showed that 48 percent of both millennials and Gen Z said that they "are excited about agentic commerce and believe it could make their lives easier." Still, even among these earlier adopters, the report found that "relatively few are prepared to hand over complete purchasing authority. Only 14 percent of millennials and 13 percent of Gen Z would give AI full control over a purchase."
With payments, 69 percent of those polled said they do not trust AI to process payments securely, while 61 percent cite security or fraud as a concern about AI in regard to completing purchases.
"Payments is where the promise of agentic commerce meets real consumer risk," Johnson said. "If an AI agent is going to spend someone's money, it has to be clear what that person agreed to, what the agent is allowed to do and when it needs to ask for approval again. That means payment infrastructure will need to carry much more context. It will have to connect identity, authentication, permissions and secure credentials so that every transaction reflects what the consumer actually intended, not simply what the AI was technically able to do."
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