At A Glance
Learn what agentic commerce is, why AI agents are transforming digital commerce and how Experian's Agent Trust solution helps businesses build secure, trusted AI interactions.Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products. But the next evolution isn’t just smarter search or more personalized recommendations; it’s AI making purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers.
From booking travel and renewing subscriptions to negotiating prices and completing purchases, AI agents are becoming active participants in the buying journey. As consumers increasingly delegate shopping tasks to autonomous assistants, businesses face a new challenge:How do you know you can trust the agent, and how does the agent know it can trust you?
The future of commerce depends on answering both questions.
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is a model of digital commerce where autonomous AI agents act on behalf of consumers or businesses to research products, compare options, make recommendations and even complete transactions with minimal human intervention.
Unlike traditional e-commerce, where consumers manually browse websites and complete purchases themselves, agentic commerce enables AI assistants to:
- Search across multiple retailers simultaneously
- Compare products, pricing and availability
- Evaluate reviews and recommendations
- Negotiate or identify the best offers
- Complete purchases based on user preferences
- Manage recurring purchases and subscriptions
Whether it’s replenishing household essentials, booking business travel or sourcing supplies for a company, AI agents have the potential to dramatically reduce friction throughout the purchasing process.
Why agentic commerce is gaining momentum
Several technology trends are accelerating the adoption of agentic commerce:
Together, these innovations are transforming AI from an assistant into an active participant in commerce.
The trust challenge in agentic commerce
While agentic commerce creates exciting opportunities, it also introduces entirely new trust challenges.
Businesses may no longer interact directly with human customers. Instead, they will increasingly receive requests from autonomous software agents.
That raises critical questions:
- Is this a legitimate AI agent acting with customer authorization?
- Can the business confidently identify the human behind the agent?
- Does that individual own or have authorized use of the payment credentials being presented?
- Has the AI agent or the underlying account been compromised?
- Is the transaction consistent with expected behavior?
- Is the merchant trustworthy from the customer’s perspective?
- How can businesses prevent AI-powered fraud without introducing unnecessary friction?
As AI agents become intermediaries for more purchasing decisions, trust must extend beyond authenticating the software itself. Businesses will need confidence that the agent is acting on behalf of the correct consumer, with the appropriate permissions and payment credentials, while consumers will expect their financial identity and preferences to remain protected.
At the same time, merchants must consider how to preserve direct customer relationships in an increasingly agent-driven marketplace. Even if a consumer’s AI agent completes the transaction, consumers will still expect recognition for their loyalty and engagement. Building trusted mechanisms that connect agent-driven transactions back to the consumer will be essential for sustaining both security and long-term customer loyalty.
Why agent trust matters
As AI agents become part of everyday commerce, verifying both human identity and agent legitimacy becomes essential.
Organizations need confidence that:
- The consumer is who they say they are
- The consumer has authorized the agent.
- The AI agent has not been altered or impersonated and is acting with consumer permission.
- The transaction aligns with expected risk signals.
- Sensitive customer data remains protected throughout the interaction.
This emerging discipline is often referred to asagent trust, establishing confidence between consumers, businesses and autonomous AI systems.
Just as digital identity became foundational to e-commerce, trusted AI identities will become foundational to agentic commerce.
Building trusted agentic commerce with Experian
Experian has spent decades helping organizations establish trust in digital interactions through identity verification, fraud prevention, data intelligence. Our breadth of data and insights enables organizations to confidently verify identities, understand relationships between individuals and businesses, detect risk and make informed decisions with greater precision.
As agentic commerce evolves, those capabilities become even more important.
Our Experian Agent Trust solution helps organizations establish confidence in AI-driven interactions by enabling businesses to verify identities, assess risk and create trusted digital experiences for both consumers and autonomous agents.
By combining identity intelligence, behavioral and device analytics, fraud analytics and risk assessment, businesses can:
- Verify customer identity before high-risk actions
- Confirm authorized AI interactions
- Detect anomalous or fraudulent behavior
- Reduce fraud while minimizing friction
- Build greater confidence in AI-enabled transactions
Rather than slowing innovation, trusted identity allows organizations to adopt agentic commerce with greater security and confidence.
Why businesses should prepare now
Agentic commerce isn’t a distant concept; it’s quickly becoming part of today’s digital economy.
Technology providers, financial institutions, retailers and marketplaces are already investing in AI-powered purchasing experiences that will reshape customer expectations.
Organizations that begin building trust frameworks today will be better positioned to:
- Deliver secure AI-powered customer experiences
- Protect against emerging fraud risks
- Strengthen consumer confidence
- Differentiate through trusted digital interactions
- Scale AI innovation responsibly
Businesses that wait until AI agents become mainstream may find themselves scrambling to retrofit security into increasingly automated customer journeys.
The future of commerce is built on trust
AI agents will fundamentally change how commerce works. Consumers will increasingly rely on intelligent systems to make purchases, manage finances and interact with businesses on their behalf.
We’re helping organizations prepare for this future by enabling trusted digital interactions through solutions like Agent Trust, giving businesses the confidence to embrace AI-driven commerce while protecting customers at every step.
As agentic commerce continues to evolve, trust won’t simply be a competitive advantage; it will be the foundation of every successful AI-powered transaction.
