A quiet revolution is underway in retail. Major players like OpenAI, Google, Walmart, and Salesforce are not just using AI to recommend products anymore — they’re building systems where AI agents shop for us. Welcome to the era of Agentic Commerce — where your shopping assistant doesn’t just find the best deal… it actually completes the checkout on your behalf.
The Rise of Agentic Commerce
In just the past few months, the world has seen incredible momentum:
🟢 OpenAI’s Instant Checkout (ACP Protocol): Recently, OpenAI introduced a feature that lets users complete purchases directly within ChatGPT. By October, PayPal and Walmart had already joined the ecosystem — making it possible for users to buy items from Walmart or pay via PayPal without leaving the chat.
🟣 Salesforce’s “Agentforce Commerce”: Salesforce integrated OpenAI and Stripe to help merchants enable conversational AI-powered purchases — bringing autonomous buying to enterprise retailers.
🔵 Google’s “Buy for Me” and Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). At Google I/O 2025, Google unveiled an AI shopping agent that can track prices, shop across multiple stores, and even complete purchases automatically. Their AP2 framework aims to standardize secure, interoperable transactions between different AI systems — a crucial step for scaling agentic payments.
💳 Mastercard’s Agent Pay & Visa’s Intelligent Commerce. Both payment giants are racing to enable secure, agent-driven payments that can plug into AI systems, ensuring every autonomous transaction is verified and compliant.
🛍️ Platforms Adapting Fast Ecommerce players like BigCommerce are building API-first, agent-friendly checkouts. Even Perplexity AI, the conversational search engine, has partnered with PayPal for instant purchases directly from chat results.
📈 Adoption and User Behavior: The Early Signs
According to recent market insights (Q3–Q4 2025):
- Around 27% of online shoppers in the U.S. and Europe have interacted with some form of AI-driven shopping assistant.
- Gen Z and Millennials are leading the shift — 45% say they’re “comfortable letting AI complete a purchase” if it saves time or finds a better deal.
- Retailers integrating AI assistants report conversion lifts between 15–25%, primarily due to frictionless instant checkout and personalized discovery.
- Experts predict that by 2027, over 30% of ecommerce transactions will involve some level of agentic automation — either in product discovery, recommendation, or checkout.
The direction is clear: shoppers are moving from decision-making to delegation.
🤔 But What Happens After the Purchase?
Everyone’s talking about how AI is transforming shopping. But there’s one part of the journey that’s still lagging — the post-purchase experience.
Once the AI completes your order… who ensures that the delivery updates, returns, rewards, and customer support are just as seamless?
If this stage remains disconnected, all the brilliance of agentic shopping could end up creating a cold, transactional experience — one that lacks the human warmth that builds brand loyalty.
💡 Why Post-Purchase Experience Matters
Post-purchase is where trust is earned, loyalty is built, and advocacy begins. Here’s how brands can optimize this crucial phase:
- Responsive & Proactive Service: Anticipate customer needs, not just react to them.
- Engaging Follow-ups: Use AI to personalize tips, tutorials, or community invites.
- Trust through Transparency: Make feedback, returns, and exchanges effortless.
- Loyalty Programs: Reward repeat purchases and emotional engagement.
- Unified Access: One simple portal for all order info, receipts, and support.
- Real-Time Insights: Deliver the right info at the right time — automatically.
🧾 The Smart Invoice: The New Storefront
As AI agents handle the purchase itself, the invoice becomes the new engagement touchpoint. It’s the first and often the only confirmation customers see — and it’s a perfect opportunity for brands to communicate value.
A smart invoice can showcase delivery tracking, warranty info, feedback options, or loyalty rewards — transforming a simple document into an interactive experience.
Platforms like InvoTools are enabling this shift — helping brands turn receipts into relationship-builders.
Conclusion: Beyond the Checkout
In this new world of agentic shopping, checkout may become invisible — but customer experience cannot.
The true differentiator for brands won’t be who sells the fastest, but who connects the deepest — especially after the sale. To thrive in agentic commerce, businesses must master not only the buying moment but the bonding moment that follows.
💬 Your turn: As AI shopping agents take over discovery and checkout, what do you think brands should focus on most in the post-purchase experience — personalization, loyalty, or transparency?
Let’s start that conversation 👇