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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesNo—agentic commerce does not have to end a brand’s customer relationship. But it can put an AI assistant between a shopper and a business, shaping what the shopper sees and which products they consider. Brands will have to make their value and data practices clear to both people and agents, set explicit limits on delegated transactions, and remain useful after the sale. Those are practical strategies supported by consumer surveys and industry guidance, not a proven guarantee of customer retention.
How agentic commerce can change who shapes the relationship
In agentic commerce, an AI assistant can help a person research products, compare options, or act on a purchase request. That creates a potential intermediary: the agent may interpret the shopper’s need before the shopper visits a brand’s website or store. The brand risks losing influence over discovery and the context in which its products are compared—not necessarily losing every subsequent interaction.
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McKinsey’s 2026 article on luxury commerce describes this upstream shift as a challenge to brand identity, customer relationships, data control, and end-to-end stewardship. Its underlying 2025 surveys included 300 consumers and 90 merchants globally; luxury-specific findings drew on a 31-merchant segment and are described as directional snapshots, not definitive evidence of what will happen across retail. McKinsey’s analysis of agentic shopping in luxury
AI-assisted research is already reported by consumers, but researching a product is not the same as delegating a purchase. The January 2026 IBM Institute for Business Value and National Retail Federation (NRF) study says 41% of consumers use AI assistants to research products, 33% to look for reviews, and 31% to find deals. The study surveyed 18,000 consumers and 200 industry executives globally. These findings establish reported uses, not how often an assistant completes a transaction or whether a brand retains the customer afterward. NRF’s agentic commerce research
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What consumers’ trust expectations mean for brands
Convenience and comparison do not eliminate concerns about control. Visa’s 2025 survey of monthly online shoppers aged 18–65 who held a debit or credit card covered 1,600 respondents in the United States, 1,600 in Australia, and 500 in New Zealand. Nearly nine in ten wanted transparency into how agents make decisions, and about half said they would stop using agents if that control disappeared. These are stated attitudes from the surveyed markets, not observed future purchasing behavior. Visa’s consumer research on agentic commerce
Privacy findings add a separate design consideration. NRF’s research page reports that 52% of consumers are comfortable sharing their data, while 83% report multiple overlapping concerns about privacy, misuse, and unwanted marketing. These figures describe distinct reported findings; comfort sharing data should not be read as an absence of concern. NRF’s agentic commerce research
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What brands can do to stay relevant in an agent-mediated journey
Make products legible to people and algorithms
Product information should accurately convey what makes an offering different, in formats that shoppers and agents can interpret. IBM/NRF calls for credible product information for both people and algorithms. In practice, that means giving agents useful, consistent details about product attributes, availability, pricing, and applicable terms rather than relying on a brand story that exists only in human-facing marketing. Information quality helps an agent represent the offer; it does not guarantee that the agent will recommend it.
Explain data use and preserve customer control
Tell customers what data informs personalization, how it is used, and what choices they have. The Visa survey makes transparency and control salient to consumer trust, while NRF’s findings show that willingness to share data can coexist with concerns about misuse or unwanted marketing. Treat consent and explanation as part of the experience, not as a technical detail hidden behind it.
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Set boundaries for delegated authority
For any action an agent can take, define what the customer authorized, what limits apply, and who is responsible if the transaction or an agent’s representation is disputed. Mastercard’s 2026 framework groups agentic trust around identity, intent, controls, trusted execution, and intelligence. This is a vendor framework for organizing trust questions, not independent proof that adopting it produces better outcomes. Mastercard’s framework for agentic commerce trust
Design the system across teams and partners
An agent-enabled experience touches more than checkout. Accenture describes coordination across product, marketing, pricing, payments, supply chain, legal, security, and data and AI. It also points to operational measures such as exception rates and cost to serve. These recommendations make implementation a cross-functional operating decision, rather than a feature that a commerce team can treat in isolation. Accenture’s overview of agentic commerce
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Keep human help where it adds relationship value
Automation need not replace every personal interaction. McKinsey’s luxury analysis describes human service as integral to luxury value, including in the context of clienteling. That point applies within the luxury context discussed by the article; its small luxury samples do not establish that every retail category should use the same balance of human and automated support.
How to assess an agentic-commerce strategy
Rather than asking only whether an agent can complete checkout, assess whether the arrangement protects the customer’s ability to understand, influence, and resolve the experience.
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| Assessment area | Question to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Customer visibility and control | Can customers understand how an agent made a recommendation or took an action, and can they set or change limits? | Visa’s survey found strong stated demand for transparency and control. |
| Product and customer context | Is the information an agent receives accurate, distinctive, and handled in line with what customers understand and allow? | Credible product information can help preserve differentiation; data practices shape trust. |
| Authority and accountability | What may the agent do, within which transaction limits, and who handles a disputed action or representation? | Mastercard’s framework centers identity, intent, controls, execution, and intelligence. |
| Interoperability | Can relevant information and authorized actions work across agents and merchant systems? | Agent-mediated journeys cross organizational and technical boundaries. |
| Human support | Where should a person be available for interpretation, reassurance, discretion, or service? | Some relationship value—particularly in luxury clienteling—depends on human interaction. |
What the evidence can—and cannot—say about customer retention
The available evidence supports a strategic case for making agent-mediated commerce transparent, controlled, machine-legible, and accountable. It does not show that these measures cause customers to remain loyal, establish which brands will retain customer relationships, or identify a winning protocol. Visa’s results describe stated consumer attitudes; IBM/NRF reports survey findings; Mastercard, Accenture, and McKinsey offer industry frameworks and analysis. Those sources are useful for identifying design priorities, but they do not amount to independent causal proof of a retention playbook.
As Sobeys executive Byron Ells put it in IBM’s January 2026 executive summary: “How do you make sure an agent is choosing your brand over another? What’s the role of the brand or retailer? These are interesting questions that we need to answer.” IBM Institute for Business Value’s agentic commerce executive summary
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