The next seismic shift in global commerce is taking shape, as major payment and technology companies race to build the infrastructure for AI-powered shopping agents. This emerging paradigm, known as "agentic commerce," envisions artificial intelligence that can autonomously search, compare, and purchase on behalf of consumers, moving beyond today's chatbots that can only browse.

"We have gone from cash to digital, now we’re going from digital to intelligent," said Sandeep Malhotra, Mastercard's EVP for Core Payments in Asia Pacific. Industry executives believe this shift could be more transformative than the original rise of e-commerce, with secure commercial transactions expected as early as the first quarter of 2026.

How Intelligent Shopping Will Work

Agentic commerce refers to AI systems that act as a user's proxy, capable of completing an entire transaction cycle within a chat interface. An early use case could be complex travel bookings, where a user might command an agent: "Find me the cheapest red-eye flight from Singapore to Tokyo under $500 with no stops." The agent would then search, present options, book, and pay—all without the user leaving the conversation.

This evolution addresses a key limitation of current AI tools, which lacked the critical function to complete payments. "Now, we are seeing the next shift, which is moving from the e-commerce world to an agentic commerce world," Malhotra added. The technology could even allow for automated purchases based on preset rules, such as buying a product if its price drops below a certain threshold.

Pilots, Partners, and Breakneck Adoption

Both Visa and Mastercard are conducting pilot programs and forging key partnerships to secure this new transaction flow. They are collaborating with AI leaders like OpenAI, which launched a "Buy it in ChatGPT" feature, and integrating with platforms such as Perplexity, which has partnered with PayPal on a shopping agent.

The demand signal is strong. A recent Visa survey found nearly half of U.S. shoppers already use AI to assist purchases, while Adobe reported a 4,700% year-over-year increase in AI-driven traffic to retail sites in July. T.R. Ramachandran, Visa's APAC Head of Products and Solutions, told CNBC that based on overall large language model adoption, widespread scaling is a matter of "months rather than years."

Navigating the New Liability Landscape

The rise of autonomous AI shoppers introduces complex structural and security challenges. A primary focus has been creating cryptographic 'agentic tokens' to verify authorized AI agents and distinguish them from malicious bots. Visa, for instance, launched a "Trusted Agent Protocol" with Cloudflare to create authenticated records for bot-initiated transactions.

Perhaps the most significant issue is liability. The traditional dispute framework—involving the consumer, banks, and merchant—must now accommodate a fifth party: the AI platform. "You almost have to assume mistakes will happen and create guardrails and protection around that," Ramachandran said, highlighting the need for new dispute systems and behavioral intelligence for authentication.

An Unavoidable Shift with Profound Impact

Proponents argue agentic commerce will save time, reduce search costs, and democratize access to deals. For merchants, however, it will bring significant pressure to adapt. As AI-driven price discovery becomes ubiquitous, companies will need to implement agent verification, develop their own AI shopping assistants, and redesign loyalty and upsell strategies.

"The ground is fertile for agentic commerce," Ramachandran stated, noting that over half of Visa's volume already flows through e-commerce. As this intelligent layer integrates into platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and banking apps, the very architecture of how we discover and pay for goods is set for its most profound change since the dawn of online shopping.