Despite rapid adoption of AI ‘agents’ by consumers in product discovery, payments remain the ‘friction frontier’ preventing true end-to-end AI shopping.
That’s according to new research of over 1,000 UK shoppers by the Retail Technology Show (RTS), which has revealed 60% of UK shoppers “remain mistrustful” of using AI agents to complete end-to-end shopping missions from discovery through to payment, while 57% have “specific concerns” around the payments issue, such as AI agents transacting without authorisation.
That rises to 70% of Gen Z and 69% of Millennials, who, in spite of being the demographics that index highest on current use of AI shopping agents, still don’t trust AI agents to transact autonomously, preferring to retain “final control” of payment authorisations.
However, two fifths (38%) of shoppers have already used AI agents within product discovery, leveraging the technology to search for items or ask for product recommendations.
Usage was even higher among younger demographics, with adoption of agentic product discovery rising to six in ten (59%) of Millennials and over half (55%) of Gen Z.
Meanwhile, 27% of UK shoppers have already used AI agents to make purchases on their behalf autonomously, rising to almost half of Millennials (47%) and Gen Z (46%).
The data comes after tech giants including Open AI, which launched Instant Checkout late last year, and Google, which launched its Universal Commerce Protocol earlier in January at NRF 2026, are “racing to embed more seamless AI transaction capabilities” and ‘one click’ AI payments across their platforms.
Matt Bradley, founder and Event Director of RTS, said: “As the indomitable rise of AI takes over more aspects of consumers day-to-day lives and shopping behaviours, retailers are racing towards meeting rapidly evolving customer expectations, bridging the gap between vision and execution.
“With maturity around AI hardening, the next frontier of innovation will require retailers to widen integrations within the AI shopping layer – not just across payments, but beyond into Order Management Systems (OMS), delivery and post-purchase.”