AI agents may eliminate the checkout page, but they could also reduce brands to invisible suppliers.
The technology is advancing because AI-referred shoppers are commercially valuable. But removing the retailer from discovery and checkout creates a problem: if an AI agent selects the product, controls the interface, and completes the transaction, what remains of the relationship between the customer and the brand?
Jessica Young, CMO of Myndlab, an AI application builder, and a former luxury ecommerce executive, believes agentic commerce could split retail into two layers: brands that remain destinations in their own right and interchangeable suppliers competing to be selected by machines.
In an interview with Retail Insider, Young spoke about the issue.
Question: Could AI agents turn established brands into interchangeable product suppliers?
Answer: Yes, it’s a real risk. If an AI agent is choosing between products based mainly on price, availability, and specifications, the brands behind those products can start to look interchangeable. The customer may receive exactly what they asked for without ever visiting the retailer or understanding what makes one brand different from another.
However, people do not choose brands based on product data alone. They choose them because they identify with the world a brand creates, whether through relatability, aspiration, inspiration or social signalling. Brands that have built that kind of connection will still influence what customers ask their agents to find. The challenge is making sure the brand’s identity is not lost when the agent becomes the middleman.
Q: What happens to loyalty when the customer never visits the retailer’s website?
A: If I repeatedly ask the same agent to shop for me and it consistently makes good decisions, my loyalty may gradually shift towards the agent rather than any individual retailer. I may trust its recommendations without paying much attention to where each product comes from.
That makes one-to-one marketing and relationship-building through CRM even more important. Retailers need to understand their customers and stay connected with them before and after the transaction, even if the purchase itself happens through an agent. Exceptional service, relevant personalisation, exclusive products, membership and community can all give people a reason to maintain that direct relationship. If the only value a retailer offers is a quick purchase, an agent can easily take over that role.
Q: Why can eliminating checkout also eliminate valuable moments of trust and differentiation?
A: We often talk about checkout as friction, but it also gives customers important reassurance. It is where they confirm delivery, understand returns, choose how to pay, and see what support is available if something goes wrong. Those details can make the difference between feeling confident enough to buy and abandoning the purchase.
This is even more important in luxury ecommerce, where trust is part of the value. Customers want reassurance around authenticity, presentation, delivery and aftercare. If an agent handles the purchase in the background, retailers need to think carefully about how those trust signals reach the customer rather than disappearing with the checkout page.
Q: How can luxury, fashion and other emotionally driven categories remain relevant when AI prioritises specifications and price?
A: From my experience in luxury ecommerce, people shop based on emotional and psychological intent, cultural and social relevance, and how a brand fits into their personal identity. An AI agent can compare specifications and prices, but it cannot create the desire that makes someone want a particular brand in the first place.
As AI agents make shopping more transactional, brands will need to place even greater emphasis on the top of the funnel. That means investing in brand awareness campaigns, experiential touchpoints and genuinely creative concepts that capture consumers’ imagination and shape their intent before they begin shopping. I do not believe AI agents will replace or diminish branding and creative campaigns. In fact, their growing role in ecommerce should drive further investment in both, because brands will need to be top of mind by the time a consumer asks an agent to make a purchase.
Q: Will retailers need to design separate experiences for human shoppers and AI agents?
A: Retailers will need to respond to two different needs. An AI agent wants accurate information about products, pricing, availability, delivery and returns. A person may want to browse, be inspired and change their mind along the way. However, both experiences should still sit within the same brand world and reflect the same values, USPs and service standards. They are ultimately two different paths to purchase, not two separate brand experiences.
We saw a similar shift when ecommerce came to the forefront. Brick-and-mortar retail did not disappear, but became more focused, with flagship stores evolving into destinations for inspiration, entertainment and deeper brand engagement. Ecommerce then became a digital expression of that same brand, using discovery, personalisation and customisation tools to build awareness and engagement, while making the journey from consideration to conversion more seamless.
AI application builders can now help retailers create and test this next path to purchase without rebuilding their entire ecommerce operation. The opportunity is to make the experience work efficiently for agents while remaining consistent with what customers already expect from the brand. However, efficiency and transactions should not come at the expense of human control. Customers should always be able to understand what an agent is doing, correct its assumptions and step back into the decision when they want to.
Q: Why will the winners in agentic commerce be those that preserve a direct customer relationship, rather than those offering the fastest transaction?
A: Speed will matter, but it will not remain a meaningful advantage for long. Once every agent can compare products and complete a transaction within seconds, that level of convenience will simply become expected.
What will be harder to replicate is a relationship in which the customer feels understood, valued and connected to the brand. The retailers that do well will make agent-led purchasing easy while still giving people a reason to engage with them directly through more robust CRM and brand awareness initiatives. Community, experiential events and one-to-one relationships across physical and digital channels will become even more important.
Ultimately, the goal should not be to remove the human from commerce. It should be to use technology to make the transactional and operational parts easier without losing the emotional connection that makes people choose one brand over another.
More from Retail Insider:
