How agentic AI could reshape the online shopping journey

One consistent theme at this year’s Shoptalk Europe was how AI will reshape retail. From transforming product discovery to redefining shopper journeys and customer engagement, AI emerged as the strategic lever driving innovation and competitive advantage across the sector.

The future of AI is autonomy 

Our ‘how AI is changing the food and grocery industry’ report looks at AI’s existing use cases for our industry. A survey by Incisiv and Wunshop found 82% of grocers see AI as essential for future competitiveness, and 59% planned to test an AI solution in 2023. Precedence Research found that the global AI in food and beverages market size in 2025 is US$15.4 bn and will be US$263.8 bn in 2034, growing more than 17-fold in the next decade. 

When we hear the industry talk about AI implementation, we can expect that most are testing and embedding Generative AI (GenAI) and Machine Learning (ML). This implementation has arguably increased due to the democratisation of AI tools like ChatGPT.

However, the pace of adoption and the capability of AI tools is accelerating, with many companies using advanced Large Language Models (LLMs). Industry leaders are going further and are preparing for tomorrow by investing in Agentic AI today.

Agentic AI systems can autonomously plan, execute, and refine tasks with minimal human input. It adapts dynamically to new challenges and is often used in robotics, supply chain automation, and virtual assistants.

Amazon and Walmart leading the charge 

Amazon is leading in AI innovation. In 2024, Amazon launched its virtual assistant Rufus. More recently, it launched a new feature called ‘Interests’ which continuously scans its marketplace to notify shoppers about new products that align with their interests.

Amazon is using AI to accelerate sustainability commitments; its Package Decision Engine is an AI model that determines the most efficient packaging options to ship items. This resulted in the removal of more than 2m tons of packaging material worldwide since 2015.

In June, Amazon invested heavily in AI, with plans to spend US$10 bn on new data centres in North Carolina to expand its AI infrastructure. It also established a new team within Amazon Robotics to develop agentic AI capabilities across its robotic fleet to enable them to act autonomously.

Walmart is another retailer leading the charge in AI. In late 2024, it launched its Content Decision Platform, which analyses customer behaviour and predicts preferred content, generating personalised homepages for each shopper.

In May 2025, Walmart claimed ‘many of our GenAI-powered copilot tools are well on their way to becoming assistive agents to fully autonomous agents’. Examples of this include its Customer Support Assistant, where agents can act autonomously to free up associates’ time, and its AI-powered shopping assistant, supporting from discovery to purchase.

Not only is the retailer focused on implementing agentic AI to improve operations and customer experiences, but it is also evolving its infrastructure and marketing to ensure it is present in agentic shopping; Walmart is clearly betting on a future where AI agents become more embedded in the shopping journey.

The industry will need to evolve as agentic shopping gains pace 

At Shoptalk, Jordi Bosch, Nestlé Global Head of Sales & Customers, discussed the different terms for unified commerce and said it doesn’t matter what name is used, what matters is that consumers are always in ‘shopper mode’ and are always browsing online. The same can be applied from an agentic AI point of view; it won’t matter that a shopper is using agentic commerce, but what will matter is how this impacts retailers and the grocery industry. 

What now works for traditional online shopping will have to evolve; loyalty, affinity and emotion won’t generate the same response from AI agents as it does from humans. Therefore, retailers must spend time analysing algorithms and understanding what agents do and do not respond to. Walmart has said that new pathways for agent discovery are needed in addition to its core value proposition and marketing ethos:

These new pathways include things like advertising strategies tailored for agents and the development of agent-specific SEO. This won't replace existing advertising methods but rather complement them.

Will existing online platforms become obsolete?

Leading omnichannel and ecommerce retailers have invested so much time and capital into their online platforms, but these would be bypassed when using agents. An example is Open AI’s Operator agent, which can ‘see’ and ‘interact’ with a webpage and take actions to generate an outcome. Operator, which is currently in a test phase, has a browser which it uses to interact with a webpage through typing, scrolling and clicking. It can even self-correct if it has made a mistake, all independently of human intervention.

If a shopper wants to place a grocery order, they can instruct Operator to do so for them. As a result, they don’t end up directly visiting a retailer’s website or app as part of their shopping journey.

At Shoptalk, Britt Olsen, On CCO, said AI will play a much bigger role in retail over the next five years concerning agents. Olsen questioned whether the web shop would be dead. While I don’t believe the web shop will die out, let alone by 2030, it provides provocation for what the role of the web shop is in a world of agentic shopping.

If Operator follows in the footsteps of ChatGPT, we could expect it to be democratised and scaled at pace. Retailers will need to work harder to engage with shoppers online, outside of the traditional shopping journey. Gamification and experiential aspects will become even more important. Additionally, retailers developing AI agents within their online platforms will be a crucial investment. Beyond this, all companies must start thinking about how agentic AI can truly revolutionise shopping and what retailers and suppliers need to do to prepare for it.

Want to know more about AI and the future of grocery online retailing? 

Subscribers can read our reports on How AI is changing the food and grocery industry, AI-powered partnerships and on the Global online trends for 2025.

Not a subscriber? See our summary on what will shape the future of the online channel in our highlights version of our global online trends report.