Spreedly Sees Good Bots Emerging as Commerce Channel

Agentic commerce uses AI agents to search, compare products, select payment methods and potentially complete purchases for consumers. A report from PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa says the shift could move a growing share of retail discovery away from merchant websites and conventional platforms toward AI interfaces. Merchants that cannot distinguish agent-led traffic from human visits may struggle to measure conversion, manage fraud and authentication, or influence the recommendations shaping purchasing decisions.

The latest findings show that only 23% of merchants can clearly identify AI-driven traffic and shopping behavior. Most surveyed merchants expect AI agents to increasingly stand between consumers and sellers, affecting product discovery, recommendations and payment choices before independently executing transactions. The data points to an early advantage for businesses that build traceable, trusted agent interactions now, while the rest risk losing visibility into customers and control over the checkout journey.

Ecommerce has traditionally relied on shopping carts, address forms and payment-verification screens, creating friction that can cause shoppers to abandon purchases. Stripe says advances in generative AI, digital payments and identity technology could shift those tasks to autonomous agents. Such systems may search for products, compare offers and complete transactions on a customer’s behalf, turning agentic commerce into a new gateway between merchants and buyers.

Stripe’s latest assessment suggests conventional checkout pages will increasingly move into the background. Shoppers could purchase directly from a product page or authorize an AI agent to place orders and make payments within predefined budgets and preferences. The change could sharply shorten the path from product discovery to purchase while requiring merchants to rethink payment authorization, fraud controls and accountability. The related report did not specify a launch date, transaction volume or investment amount.