Agentic Commerce: What Happens When Shopping Starts Shopping for You

Yesterday, Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI that lets people shop right inside ChatGPT.

No website. No cart. No “forgot password.” Just: “Hey, I’m out of paper towels.” And the AI handles it.

They called it agentic commerce, and while the term sounds futuristic, it’s actually a lot closer to your world than you think.

Because the next wave of e-commerce isn’t about better websites, it’s about building systems that act on behalf of your customers.

So… What is Agentic Commerce?

Think of it this way:

Today, people search, click, and buy. Tomorrow, they’ll just say what they need, and an AI agent will take care of it.

It’s the difference between:

• “Add to cart” → “Already handled.”
• “Search results” → “Smart suggestions.”
• “Targeting audiences” → “Serving individuals.”

It’s commerce that doesn’t wait for the customer to show up, it meets them where they already are.

What This Means for You

You don’t have to be Walmart to feel the ripple. If your customers start asking AI tools to find the best [product category], the AI will only choose from what it can read, understand, and trust.

That means:

• If your product data is messy, it won’t make the list.
• If your content doesn’t describe real value, it won’t stand out.
• If your site isn’t technically solid, it won’t even register.

This is where CX meets e-commerce reality.

The AI can only sell what your experience systems can serve up cleanly.

How to Get Ready (Without Overhauling Everything)

Here’s the five moves you can start now:

• Tighten your data. Make sure your product info is structured and consistent — descriptions, tags, images, all of it. That’s what AI reads first.
• Rewrite for how people talk. If someone said “What’s the best solution for [problem]?”, would your content answer that out loud?
• Connect your systems. Your CRM, analytics, and e-commerce platforms should all talk to each other. Silos make AIs dumb.
• Rethink your experience from chat to checkout. Imagine your customer journey without a single page load. What still works? What breaks? Fix that.
• Pilot, don’t panic. You don’t have to rebuild your store — start by optimizing for AI search, testing conversational flows, or cleaning up metadata.

Why This Matters

Agentic commerce won’t just make buying faster, it’ll change what brand loyalty means. People won’t say “I shop at [brand],” they’ll say “my AI orders from them.”

That means your experience has to work not just for people, but for the systems acting on their behalf.

So yes, this is new. But it’s not out of reach.

We help brands like yours get ahead of changes like this every day — cleaning data, connecting tools, and designing experiences that humans and machines understand.

Because in the age of agentic commerce, the best strategy is simple:

Be the brand the AI trusts first.

Book a 30-Minute Agentic Readiness Review