Artificial intelligence (AI) buying brokers might make it simpler for customers to examine merchandise and full purchases, however they might not change the place customers spend their cash.
Even when an autonomous AI assistant should purchase the identical product from competing retailers at equivalent costs, with equivalent transport and return phrases, 40.2% of U.S. customers would like it to purchase from a big on-line market, PYMNTS Intelligence’s October report “From Prompt to Purchase: Who Wins the AI Shopper?” found. By comparability, 21.8% would select a division retailer or giant retailer, 16.1% would choose a model’s personal web site, and one other 21.8% would let the AI determine.
Shoppers Pick Marketplaces for Returns, Selection and Habit
PYMNTS Intelligence surveyed 2,191 U.S. customers in August. Even with each time period of the supply matched, most nonetheless had a choice. Among those that selected a selected vendor sort, 36.6% cited simpler or extra dependable returns, 34.9% cited higher choice and 32.7% pointed to behavior.
Those causes replicate relationships constructed over years of purchases, not variations within the supply. Among respondents who reported their most up-to-date AI-assisted buy, 59.7% accomplished it on Amazon. Brands’ personal web sites or apps have been chosen by 6.3%. And 57.9% of customers who use AI to store stated they normally nonetheless purchase on Amazon even when AI helps them discover the product.
That provides incumbents an edge an AI agent can’t simply erase. “Recommendation is the easy part. Certainty and trust is the product,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in her September column “As AI Assistants Fight Over Shoppers, Infrastructure Gets Paid Either Way.”
Marketplace Shoppers Would Switch for Price, Not AI Checkout
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Among 1,286 respondents who full most purchases on marketplaces, 53.9% stated a cheaper price or unique low cost would transfer them to purchase instantly from a model. Another 49.9% cited free transport as quick as a market’s. An AI assistant dealing with checkout drew simply 12.1%.
OpenAI examined that hole. It launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT in September 2025, letting customers purchase from Etsy and Shopify retailers with out leaving a dialog, PYMNTS reported. In March, OpenAI stated Instant Checkout was “moving to Apps,” shifting purchases to retailers’ personal apps inside ChatGPT, PYMNTS reported.
Amazon and Walmart Will Hold Over Half of US eCommerce in 2026
Amazon and Walmart will collectively seize greater than half of U.S. retail eCommerce gross sales this 12 months, eMarketer predicted. Both are constructing agent layers of their very own. When a consumer picks a Walmart merchandise inside Google’s Gemini, Walmart’s Sparky assistant takes over the basket, PYMNTS reported.
Amazon has moved to management how outdoors brokers attain its web site. In November 2025, it sued Perplexity AI, alleging the startup disguised its Comet browser as an everyday Chrome session to bypass blocks Amazon had put in place. A federal decide granted Amazon a preliminary injunction in March, PYMNTS reported.
The Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction in August, ruling that it was Comet’s customers, not Perplexity, accessing Amazon’s methods, PYMNTS reported. The court docket stated it did “not establish a new legal regime governing agentic AI,” leaving open whether or not AI brokers can store on third-party platforms with out the platform’s consent.
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At PYMNTS Intelligence, we work with companies to uncover insights that gas clever, data-driven discussions on altering buyer expectations, a extra linked financial system and the strategic shifts essential to obtain outcomes. With rigorous analysis methodologies and unwavering dedication to goal high quality, we provide trusted information to develop your online business. As our accomplice, you’ll have entry to our numerous staff of PhDs, researchers, information analysts, quantity crunchers, material veterans and editorial consultants.
