Agentic AI Is Reshaping Retail: 70% of Consumers Now Open to AI-Driven Purchases

Quick Facts

70% of U.S. consumers are now open to AI agents handling purchases on their behalf, up sharply from early 2025 when two-thirds said they would not allow it.
AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites rose 393% year-over-year in Q1 2026, and AI traffic converted 42% better than non-AI traffic in March 2026, compared to 38% worse just one year prior.
Salesforce data shows AI and agents drove 20% of all retail sales and $262 billion in holiday spend during the 2025 season.

Consumer acceptance of agentic AI in shopping has accelerated faster than most retailers anticipated. A January 2026 PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 2,299 U.S. adults found that 70% are open to AI agents handling shopping tasks on their behalf. In early 2025, an Omnisend study found two-thirds of consumers would not let AI buy for them even if it meant a better deal.

The shift is showing up in traffic and revenue data. According to Adobe, AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites rose 693.4% year-over-year during the 2025 holiday season, peaking at 1,151% in December. On Black Friday 2025 alone, generative AI traffic on retail websites was up 805% year-over-year.

Conversion Numbers Tell the Story

The conversion gap has closed and reversed. In March 2025, AI traffic converted 38% worse than non-AI traffic. By March 2026, it converted 42% better, a record in Adobe’s data. That reversal signals that agentic AI is moving beyond novelty into a channel that actually drives sales.

Salesforce puts the dollar figure at $262 billion in holiday spend attributable to AI and agents, accounting for 20% of all retail sales in that period. On Prime Day 2025, Amazon reported a 3,300% increase in traffic from AI shopping assistants.

Amazon and Walmart Move Fast

Amazon is consolidating its AI commerce bets. The company sunset its standalone Rufus AI shopping chatbot and replaced it with Alexa for Shopping, now available on the Amazon Shopping app, website, and Echo Show devices. CEO Andy Jassy said more than 350 million customers used Alexa for Shopping in the past year, with interactions up fivefold year-over-year. Amazon says the underlying technology drove nearly $12 billion in incremental sales last year.

Customers using Alexa+ are completing purchases on devices three times more often, talking to the assistant twice as much, and using smart home functions 50% more, Jassy told analysts during an April 29 earnings call.

Walmart is moving on a parallel track. Daniel Danker, EVP of AI Acceleration, said the company partnered with OpenAI to bring Walmart directly into the ChatGPT experience. Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner described the shift as “the next great evolution in retail.”

Trust Gaps Remain

Consumer openness does not equal full trust. A Forrester March 2025 Consumer Pulse Survey found only 24% of U.S. online adults trust AI agents to make routine purchases without human approval. Nearly two-thirds of consumers are interested in AI that buys an item when it hits a target price, but only 47% want AI buying recommended products outright.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was direct about current limitations. He told analysts that most AI shopping agents fail to deliver a satisfactory experience, citing weak personalization and inaccurate pricing and delivery estimates. Forrester analyst Emily Pfeiffer put it plainly: “Nobody has figured it out, but everyone has FOMO. Everyone is prematurely rushing to market.”

What Retailers Need to Watch

Google’s VP of Global Solutions Carrie Tharp described the trajectory as a move “from a passive tool that offers prediction, to active, autonomous resources that can execute complex, multi-step, prescriptive actions.” Google VP Vidhya Srinivasan noted that AI search conversations are now two to three times longer than traditional queries, with shoppers providing detailed context rather than simple keywords.

Wharton professor Kartik Hosanagar framed the stakes in stark terms: “Whoever controls the agents now has the power.” For DTC brands and retailers, that means the question of which AI platforms surface their products, and on what terms, is becoming as critical as any paid media strategy.