E-commerce continues to eat up an ever-increasing share of the U.S. retail market: Americans bought more than $3.3 billion worth of items online every day in the second quarter of last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Online retail’s share of spending is increasing with each year that passes.

Traditionally, that’s meant typing a term or phrase into a search bar and clicking through to a shopping basket. But the artificial intelligence revolution is poised to swamp online retail, too, with agentic AI set to shop on behalf of customers. The e-commerce sector is rapidly preparing for what’s about to come—an influx of nonhuman customers acting on behalf of humans.

“We avoid hype around technology, but AI agentic shopping could bring huge changes to retail if it is widely adopted,”

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