AI agents are already becoming part of how consumers shop. Shopping is now the 3rd-leading AI application

• epsilon research report

AI has already become a meaningful decision layer for shopping. BUT, only 16% of surveyed shoppers use AI to finalize a purchase, against 42% who compare prices with it

That 26-point gap is the entire AI's agentic-commerce opportunity. Consumers already trust AI to think about the purchase, but they are much less likely to let it execute the purchase.

You can already see the economics showing up. Shopify says AI-driven traffic to its merchants grew 8x YoY in Q1 2026, while orders coming from AI-powered searches grew nearly 13x. New buyers arriving through AI channels were placing orders at nearly 2x the rate of other channels.

That also explains why Shopify is happy to connect Shop Pay directly into Meta's Muse, while Amazon has blocked Muse from transacting on Amazon. Shopify benefits when more outside agents send high-intent buyers into its commerce rails.

Amazon, unlike Shopify/Walmart, keeps outside AI shopping agents out on purpose. It has blocked dozens of them, ChatGPT included, and told a court that bot traffic must be stripped from ad impressions before advertisers are billed, since those ads are sold against human visits that a price-comparing agent never makes. Rufus, Amazon's own assistant, lets shoppers use AI without leaving the store.

Amazon has much more to protect because an outside agent can sit between Amazon and the customer, potentially weakening Amazon's control over discovery, recommendations and advertising.