Agentic Commerce: The Next Step in E-Commerce

A revolutionary form of online shopping is constantly on the rise. It involves the use of AI agents that find products for customers, compare prices and delivery options, and make purchases independently. Agentic AI takes online commerce to a higher level of evolution by automating many digital B2B processes. That is why it is important to make product data understandable not only for humans but also for machines.

AI agents process customer and employee inquiries, recognize patterns, make decisions, and make purchases. In order for these software programs to interpret and use the information correctly, retailers must structure the data, systems, and APIs. AI assistants act on behalf of a buyer. They decide what, where, and when to buy, follow instructions, carry out transactions, and weigh the pros and cons of a product.

You can also set up merchant agents to assist with administration and automatically process buyer inquiries. They act in the interests of a brand, present their own product range, understand customer needs, answer questions, create offers, or regulate legal issues. They are good advisors and process managers who can help you scale your business quickly.

What is Agentic Commerce?

Agent-based commerce is an innovative e-commerce model in which a software program performs every step instead of humans. An AI agent is a virtual assistant based on large language models (LLMs) that performs tasks. Well-known examples of this are Perplexity's Buy with Pro and Amazon's Buy for Me. They help users compare products within a chat and purchase them from a retailer.

The study “Agentic Commerce Market Analysis 2026” shows that its market share will increase dramatically in various regions by 2034. The most important areas of application are healthcare, real estate, e-commerce, travel, banking, and financial services.

Our experts in online shop programming already have experience in developing AI-supported tools. Above all, we use generative AI (LLMs) to automatically create product descriptions in KennerPIM and generate context-related responses. Kenner Soft develops AI chatbots that can be integrated directly into your online store. These are important solutions that significantly influence personalization. They understand preferences, analyze purchase history, and can make relevant recommendations. In addition, our team of experts optimizes your online store so that customers can discover and purchase your product range via ChatGPT or other AI agents.

How does agentic commerce work?

Agency-based trading combines human activity with independent AI action and involves several phases. These include:

• User-to-agent relationship. The user gives the AI assistant the necessary instructions. The shopping agent interprets the request, taking into account the restrictions defined by the customer (price, specifications).
• Autonomous processing. Agentic AI Commerce is capable of planning multi-step workflows and performing autonomous actions. This allows you to monitor prices in real time, rearrange inventory, or even complete purchases. Human approval is not required for low-risk investments.
• Product and decision making. AI agents analyze multiple product data from various sources by comparing availability, prices, delivery times, and reviews. Retailers should therefore ensure that all information is machine-readable. It is recommended to use standardized attributes and clear metadata so that AI systems can understand and use them.
• Merchant-to-agent interaction. For large-scale agentic commerce to work, systems need to be accessible via machine-readable interfaces. This means opening up APIs for pricing, availability, return policies, and other important information to enable effective communication between AI agents and merchants.
• Transactions. This is an important part of the agentic commerce process. Purchases are completed using a secure, universal payment standard—Google's Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), AI-enabled tokenized credentials from Visa, and Stripe's integration with in-app checkout in ChatGPT. The authentication systems ensure transaction transparency and provide audit trails for fraud detection.
• Post-purchase support. After the purchase is successfully completed, the AI agent takes care of other tasks such as shipment tracking or returns management.

When are the products of an online store visible to AI agents?

You should ensure that AI-powered assistants can find your product range. There are three levels of visibility.

1. Basic visibility is a technical prerequisite for product indexing. To make the shop visible to Google and SEO, you need to do the following:

• sitemap.xml → List of all pages/products for search engines
• robots.txt does not block products → Google is allowed to crawl them
• schema.org Product + Offer → The data is structured, with prices, etc.

However, this is not sufficient for marketplaces and AI systems.

2. The web shop is becoming systematically machine-readable.

• External systems retrieve product data via Store API or public read-only API.
• Items are uniquely identified by stable SKU/GTIN.
• Data is automatically transferred to shopping and advertising platforms. (Product feeds, e.g., Merchant Center)

3. The highest level is Agentic eCommerce. The web shop is visible not only to search engines but also to AI assistants. The following protocols are necessary for it to find products, check availability, place orders, and pay for them.

Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open set of rules that enables collaboration between AI agents, buyers, and businesses. This standard is used to define the type of structured data exchange between the AI assistant and the merchant.

Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) is required for multiple AI systems to work together and solve distributed tasks. They are developed for multi-agent systems and enable direct communication between AI modules.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that enables communication with AI models and external systems and data sources. It acts as a bridge through which AI agents retrieve current information and take action.

Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) enables secure, compliant transactions between AI agents, financial institutions, and merchants thanks to the use of a common language. It supports various payment methods to prevent fraud.

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard that enables companies, AI platforms, and payment providers to interact without custom integrations.

How are AI agents changing e-commerce?

The use of Agentic AI offers the following advantages:

• The biggest challenge for modern customers is finding a good, functional online store that offers a personalized, seamless shopping experience on all devices. Since artificial intelligence handles all steps of the purchase process, the AI agent takes care of the entire customer journey.
• Customers can be addressed individually and their expectations can be optimally met.
• Automating manual processes conserves resources in marketing and customer service departments.
• Short response times help the company gain more trust and potential customers.
• AI agents process large amounts of data, gaining valuable insights, evaluating them meaningfully, and translating them into actions.
• The partnership between Google and PayPal in Agentic Commerce makes payment processes seamless and faster by integrating PayPal solutions across Google products.

There are various sources where you can find more detailed information about preparing a shop for AI shopping. Also, keep an eye out for the next article.

What factors prove that agentic commerce is a genuine ecosystem?

The use of AI agents in B2B commerce demonstrates how firmly established this trend is. Here are the most important reasons that underscore the significance and widespread attention given to this innovative form of shopping.

• Large companies such as Google, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are developing their own agent protocols to ensure seamless collaboration.
• Integration with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Shopware enables a seamless online shopping experience.
• The Agentic Commerce Alliance was founded in Europe to make commerce autonomous and diverse.
• Through integration with ERP and CRM systems as well as marketplaces, AI agents monitor supply chains, coordinate replenishment, process complex service requests, and make purchases without human assistance.
• Customers prefer to use AI agents for product search and comparison. Demand is constantly growing.
• Automated, agent-driven procurement processes enable companies to increase their efficiency and sales and expand their reach beyond the end customer market.

Conclusion

For better growth, traditional online shops need to have structured data and reject outdated checkout models. Then AI agents can understand them and trust them more. The integration of secure, instant payments plays a much bigger role than a good-looking website. AI assistants can be successfully integrated into browsers and various operating systems, making the purchasing process easier and smoother. Continuously personalized recommendations help strengthen customer loyalty. Self-driving systems not only optimize processes, but also identify customer needs.

If you have any questions, you may be interested in our E-commerce agency for various AI solutions. At Kenner Soft, we are happy to assist you with advice and support.

FAQ

• What is an AI agent?

This is an intelligent software program that collects data, makes decisions, and performs various tasks on behalf of a user. It interacts with other systems and people, acting independently and flexibly.

• What is the Agentic Commerce Protocol?

This is a standard, an open set of rules that enables trade between buyers, AI agents, and companies.

• How are AI-powered agents redefining the future of retail?

Autonomous software solutions are transforming retail, making it proactive by executing actions and pursuing goals. Purchasing processes are being automated and restructured.

• How can you make an online store visible to other AI agents?

The web shop should be made agent-ready. It should have structured data, all protocols, and open interfaces (APIs). Then the AI agents will have access to prices, product data, inventory levels, and ordering processes. Instead of search engine optimization, you should focus on optimizing content for AI-supported search and machine queries (GEO) and trade data within a commerce graph (CGO).

• How can you link an AI agent to your online store?

In order for an AI-supported software program to assist with sales, the shop should be connected to an external agent or an individual chatbot via API.