Agentic Commerce: How AI Agents Are Reshaping the Future of Retail

Retail is undergoing a profound paradigm shift as autonomous artificial intelligence agents transition from mere recommendation tools to active participants in commerce. Industry leaders and analysts refer to this emerging landscape as Agentic Commerce, where AI systems execute purchases, compare complex specifications, and manage transactions on behalf of consumers.

According to recent data from Salesforce's State of Commerce report, agent-driven searches surged by 200% year-over-year. Referral traffic from AI chat interfaces experienced massive growth, ranging from 150% to 428% depending on the measured quarter. Concurrently, traditional product discovery through direct brand assets declined by 7%, while the adoption of emerging channels—including AI assistants, social media, and delivery apps—expanded by 38%.

The Shift from SEO to GEO

During the late 2025 holiday shopping season, autonomous AI agents were involved in $262 billion of global consumer spending, accounting for roughly 20% of total retail sales. This dramatic evolution forces brands to rethink their digital visibility strategies. For decades, the digital battleground focused on search engine optimization (SEO), aiming to capture human attention on search result pages. Today, the focus is shifting toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

"As we enter this new era, the struggle for consumer attention transforms into a struggle for the machine's attention," explains Liran Schechter, VP of Digital Sales at Salesforce Israel. "Brands must invest not only in product quality, but also in the integrity and structure of the data they provide to AI models. The more reliable and precise the data, the higher the probability that the model will select the brand."

Machine-to-Machine Commerce

As personal AI agents accumulate vast datasets regarding individual user preferences, budgets, and shopping habits, the purchasing process becomes automated. Consumers no longer need to manually compare shipping costs, apply loyalty discounts, or navigate customer service chatbots. Instead, the consumer's personal agent communicates directly with the brand's autonomous agent.

Yaniv Saban, CEO of ONE Digital Marketing at ONE Technologies, notes that this infrastructure requires a complete overhaul of business systems. "Brands must build agents capable of negotiating, providing complex data, and closing transactions simultaneously with multiple consumer agents," Saban explains. "In the near future, the customer will simply state their objective, and the entire transaction will be executed autonomously between machines."

Despite the clear efficiency gains, this transition raises critical questions regarding consumer privacy and market access. As personal filters curate increasingly narrow product options, brands that fail to optimize for AI agents risk becoming entirely invisible in the modern retail ecosystem.