Bain & Company says agentic AI is on track to reshape how consumers shop online, even as roughly 50% of shoppers remain cautious about letting AI handle purchases from start to finish. In its new Agentic AI in Retail report, the firm argues that autonomous shopping agents are already changing discovery, loyalty, and media economics, making it urgent for retailers to define their agentic commerce strategy.
Consumers are already starting journeys with AI
According to Bain’s Consumer Lab Generative AI survey, around 30% to 45% of U.S. consumers use Generative AI for product research and comparison. Roughly 17% of unique online shoppers say they will begin their holiday shopping on an AI platform such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, while about 30% plan to start with Google search, which is now also AI‑enabled.
Younger shoppers are leading this shift. Among unique shoppers, about 52% of Millennials and 25% of Gen Z…
say they will use an AI assistant to start their holiday shopping, signalling how quickly AI is becoming the default entry point into the retail journey for key demographics.
Agentic AI emerges as a retail disruptor Bain defines agentic AI as systems that combine memory, reasoning, and tool use to act semi‑ or fully autonomously across the shopping journey, from product research to checkout.
These agents move beyond simple chatbots, with the potential to compare products, make recommendations, and even place orders on a shopper’s behalf. AI already accounts for up to 25% of referral traffic for some retailers, though it is still less than 1% of total traffic overall.
Bain likens this moment to the early days of search engines, suggesting that as agentic systems mature, they could become a primary driver of discovery and conversion in e-commerce…
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