Here’s what consumers want from AI shopping agents
Agentic AI is growing in acceptance as a shopping tool, but consumers have definite preferences in how it is used and what services it offers.
A new survey from financial services company Synchrony and Oxford Economics reveals shoppers are most comfortable using artificial intelligence for lower-risk tasks such as searching for products, comparing prices and applying discounts. Eight-in-10 (79%) surveyed U.S. consumers are willing to let AI automatically apply discounts and 74% are willing to let AI apply loyalty points or rewards.
[READ MORE: How agentic AI is finding its place in retail]
In addition, slightly more than half (51%) of respondents are open to AI recommending a new credit card and 48% are open to AI checking whether they are prequalified. More than four-in-10 (43%) are comfortable letting AI purchase up to a preset limit and 37% are comfortable allowing AI to automatically purchase regularly used products.
Respondents already using AI are less likely than non-users to cite a preference for making shopping decisions themselves as a barrier to AI use (34% vs. 52%). Gen Z (39%) respondents are almost three times more willing than boomers (15%) to let AI handle payment details.
Building consumer trust
Survey results indicate fraud protection is a major agentic shopping adoption driver. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) say they would use AI more if it came with fraud protection. Respondents also say they would be likely to trust an AI shopping assistant from a technology company (58%), retailer or brand (56%), general AI platform (55%) or their primary bank (55%). A bank with no existing relationship trails at 38%.
More than eight-in-10 (82%) respondents say they want AI shopping agents to keep data secure (82%), while 77% want transparency about how data is used and 58% want agentic shopping to save time.
Synchrony advises retailers developing agentic shopping tools to put fraud prevention, consent and recourse first and to build review, approval and overrides into key actions. The company also recommends that retailers focus first on search, comparison, tips and discounts and embed AI in brands, banks and platforms consumers already use. Users should have an easy time seeing what an AI agent did, understand why it acted and have any issued resolved quickly.
“Consumers are telling us the future of AI shopping will be won by the most trusted experience,” said Nimrod Barak, chief AI officer at Synchrony. “As AI moves from helping shoppers compare to acting on their behalf, trust becomes the real differentiator. The companies that build protection, approval and accountability from the start will be better positioned to earn consumer confidence, drive growth and win in AI commerce.”
