Agentic Commerce: What It Means for Your Business When AI Becomes the Shopper

The Dawn of the AI Shopper

Agentic commerce represents a major shift in how online transactions take place. Unlike the AI recommendations we’ve had for years, AI agents are now capable of autonomously completing purchases on behalf of consumers. They discover products, weigh options, negotiate where possible, and transact, all without a human needing to click “add to cart.”

This isn’t science fiction. In September 2025, OpenAI partnered with Stripe to launch the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a technical standard that enables AI agents to interact directly with merchants and payment providers. Platforms including Shopify and Etsy are already adopting it. Google followed with its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), extending these capabilities across its entire ecosystem.

AI agents don’t browse websites the way humans do. They don’t scroll through product pages or get drawn in by lifestyle photography. They make decisions based on specs, stock levels, price accuracy, and brand reputation.

What This Means for Australian Businesses

For Australian businesses, particularly those in ecommerce, this shift presents both an opportunity and a strategic imperative. The businesses that prepare will capture transactions that competitors miss entirely.

Here’s the key thing to get your head around: AI agents don’t browse websites the way humans do. They don’t scroll through product pages, admire hero images, or get drawn in by lifestyle photography. Instead, they rely on structured data, APIs, and product feeds. They make decisions based on specifications, availability, pricing accuracy, and increasingly, brand reputation signals.

This creates a new discipline we’re calling Agentic Commerce Optimisation (ACO), the practice of ensuring your digital presence is optimised not just for human users, but for the AI agents that will increasingly represent them.

The Core Elements of Agentic Commerce Optimisation

Structured Data Goes from Nice-to-Have to Necessity

Schema.org markup has always been important for SEO. In an agentic commerce world, it becomes the language through which your products communicate with AI shoppers. Complete, accurate structured data using industry standards like GS1 product identifiers isn’t optional anymore. Without it, you’re invisible.

Content Needs to Serve Two Masters

Your product descriptions, specifications, and supporting content must now serve both humans who browse and AI agents who parse. This means concise, accurate, unambiguous information alongside the engaging copy that converts human visitors. The good news? These goals aren’t mutually exclusive. Clear, well-structured content serves both audiences.

Brand Authority Influences AI Decisions

This is where things get interesting. AI agents don’t just read your product data. They also assess sentiment, reviews, brand reputation, and trust signals when making recommendations on behalf of their users.

The same brand-building work that influences human purchasing decisions will influence AI agent behaviour. Delivering on customer expectations, earning genuine word-of-mouth, and consistently being a business people trust matters just as much to AI shoppers as it does to human ones.

Technical Infrastructure Must Support AI Access

Ensuring your site is crawlable by AI systems, that your product feeds are complete and current, and that you’re prepared for direct API integration will separate the prepared from those left behind. This aligns closely with the Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) work that’s already becoming essential for visibility in AI-powered search.

A Balanced Perspective

While the potential here is significant, a measured approach is warranted.

The timeline for widespread adoption of autonomous purchasing may be more extended than some predict. Technological capabilities need to align with regulatory frameworks, consumer trust, and practical implementation realities. Security concerns around autonomous transactions remain valid, and the need for human oversight isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

Smaller merchants in particular may find the integration costs and technical demands challenging. The industry is still developing competing standards, and it remains uncertain which protocols will achieve dominant adoption.

Consumer acceptance is another variable. Many people aren’t yet comfortable with AI making purchasing decisions on their behalf, particularly for significant purchases. Privacy concerns around AI agents accessing personal preferences and financial information will need to be addressed before mainstream adoption takes hold.

The assumption that AI agents will rely solely on structured data may also prove to be an oversimplification. As these systems evolve, they may develop more complex interaction patterns that more closely resemble human browsing behaviour.

Practical Steps to Prepare

For businesses looking to get ahead of this curve thoughtfully, here’s where to start.

Audit Your Structured Data

Review your current schema.org implementation. Is your product data complete? Are you using appropriate industry identifiers? This work benefits your current SEO while preparing you for agentic commerce. Our structured data audit checklist can help you identify gaps.

Test AI Perception of Your Products

Ask current AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude to describe your products or recommend options in your category. What information are they using? What gaps exist? This provides valuable insight into how AI systems currently perceive your offering, and where you might be losing ground to competitors.

Monitor Protocol Development

Stay informed about ACP, UCP, and competing standards. If you’re on Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix, monitor when ACP integration becomes available for your platform and assess whether early adoption makes sense for your business.

Balance Optimisation Efforts

Don’t sacrifice human user experience in pursuit of AI optimisation. The most effective approach serves both audiences, with clear, accurate information presented in ways that work for human browsers and AI parsers alike. This mirrors the approach we recommend for balancing GEO and traditional SEO.

Keep Building Brand Authority

The fundamentals of brand building remain as relevant as ever. Positive customer experiences, authentic reviews, and consistent reputation management influence AI agent decisions just as they influence human ones. There are no shortcuts here, and that’s actually good news for businesses doing the work properly.

Businesses that prepare for agentic commerce will capture transactions through channels that competitors aren’t yet serving. Those who wait risk invisibility to an increasingly important class of customer: the AI agent shopping on behalf of a human who never visits your website at all.

The Bigger Picture

Agentic commerce is part of a broader shift in how AI integrates into daily life. For businesses that understand and prepare for this change, it represents an opportunity to capture transactions through channels that competitors aren’t yet thinking about.

For those who wait, the risk is invisibility to an increasingly important class of customer: the AI agent shopping on behalf of a human who never visits your website at all.

The businesses that thrive will be those that serve both audiences effectively, maintaining the human experience that builds relationships while ensuring the technical foundation that makes them visible to AI.