Agentic commerce is here: How retailers can capitalize on the moment

The retail industry is at an inflection point. Consumers have never had more options, with endless places to shop, and more channels at their disposal to research, compare, and purchase their favorite products. But this bounty is a double-edged sword. Shoppers are increasingly inundated with ads, brand messages, social media influencers, and other marketing efforts, all vying for time and attention. That's left many overwhelmed, needing help to parse the vast possibilities that technology has allowed.

AI offers a lifeboat to consumers struggling with fragmented attention and message overload. With the help of large language models (LLMs), agentic commerce is on the verge of making shopping much easier. We’re already seeing the potential for agents to make simple purchases for shoppers, compare prices, and help plan anything from a black-tie wardrobe to a seven-year-old’s birthday party. And 2026 may be the year that large-scale adoption comes to pass. Survey data in the Braze Retail Customer Engagement Review suggests that consumer adoption of agentic shopping will increase from 19% in 2025 to 46% by the end of 2026, a 1.4X increase.

The future of shopping is already being built, and brands need to be ready for a day where AI intermediation is the norm. Marketing leaders are already considering the potential effects of intermediation, with 71% saying agents have weakened their ability to connect with customers.

There are strategic ways for retailers to prepare for agentic commerce. Brands that unify their data, build thoughtful LLM integrations, and prioritize customer relationships built on trust can quickly build a successful foundation for the future.

Preparing for the future by unifying data

Imagine a not-so-distant future when a shopper can turn to their agent with a high-level goal like “plan a backyard barbecue for five families next weekend including decorations, activities around the pool, and a full menu including two vegetarians and one family that doesn’t eat gluten.” An agent will then coordinate across multiple vendors to purchase food, new bathing suits and games, and decorations to make the party pop.

Fully agentic shopping like this isn’t far-fetched, nor is it that far into the future. Succeeding in tomorrow’s agentic age will require thoughtful considerations today, especially in regards to a brand’s tech stack. Retailers will need to break through data silos with the aim of offering full-scale personalization and agentic experiences no matter where or how their customers shop.

AI is offering new, agentic possibilities on the data integration front. As tech stacks grow more complicated and data becomes nuanced, marketers can turn to agents like BrazeAI Agent Consoleᵀᴹ to clean and organize data so brands are prepared for agentic shopping.

Adopting LLMs as part of the lifecycle

Consumers are already using LLMs for shopping advice. With 900 million weekly active users, ChatGPT is growing exponentially, and OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company is creating new strategies to help users facilitate purchases. At the end of 2025, OpenAI announced a new framework that will allow consumer-facing brands to create custom apps in ChatGPT.

Braze has already built a first-of-its-kind integration with ChatGPT. Brands can create product interactions within ChatGPT’s interface and extend their surface area to this valuable new channel. Braze can help brands to incorporate interactions from the app ecosystem into their engagement strategy, and build rich, interactive UIs within ChatGPT that can return lists, carousels, interactive map components, or storefront details from a brand.

As ChatGPT continues to innovate and build new ways to facilitate shopping, marketers can trust Braze to stay ahead of the curve, striving to offer new ways to personalize experiences within the LLM’s chat experience. Our goal is to ensure marketers never lose the connection and relationship with customers that is the lifeblood of your brand.

Building trust as agentic commerce grows

Consumers are starting small. While agentic commerce is set to be the “new front door” (i.e. the way most consumers shop online), many aren’t yet ready to give up full control to their AI intermediaries. Right now, only 10% of consumers are willing to let agents operate independently.

Consumers still want to be involved, but they increasingly want agents to cut through the noise that comes with all of the emails, notifications, texts, and social media stories they’re exposed to. That dynamic is amplified by consumers' distaste for the experiences they're receiving from many brands. Only 53% of consumers today say brands accurately predict their wants and needs. Agents can offer a personal assistant that learns the exact needs of an individual, down to the brands they love, the price they’re willing to pay, and even the way they prefer their clothes to fit, supporting a truly personalized shopping experience.

As brands prepare for the future of agentic commerce, they’ll also need to prioritize direct relationships with each individual customer. Relationships are built on trust, which requires brands to move away from transactional marketing and focus instead on the holistic needs of each customer. Doing so can help influence shoppers during high-intent moments like abandoned carts or back-in-stock alerts. Show your customers that you care and that you can meet their needs, and odds are that they’ll still turn to your brand even as they dip their toes in the water with agents.

Final thoughts

Braze is investing in the future of agentic commerce. We’ve announced valuable tools such as BrazeAI Decisioning Studioᵀᴹ that offers true 1:1 personalization across the lifecycle. BrazeAI Agent Consoleᵀᴹ now allows marketers to deploy agents to quickly personalize product recommendations, copy, and images while the BrazeAI Operatorᵀᴹ integrates LLM capabilities directly into the Braze platform, helping marketers scale sophisticated campaigns faster. As more shoppers turn to ChatGPT, the Braze SDK integration with ChatGPT apps can help brands personalize every moment.

BrazeAIᵀᴹ is already helping you build the foundation of agentic commerce. As new innovations allow shoppers to offload more work onto agents, we’ll be there to support your brand meeting the moment with unique, personalized campaigns that continue building trust.

Interested in learning more about how the rise of modern AI is impacting customer engagement for retail and eCommerce brands? Check out our Retail Customer Engagement Review.