Clemens Wasner

Mckinsey report - AI agents are quietly taking over the retail shopping cart and could mediate $3 Tn to $5 tn of global consumer commerce by 2030. Instead of just suggesting a product, an AI agent can now scan multiple stores, check inventory, and build a ready-to-buy shopping cart. This shift is happening across 6 different levels of automation. - At the lowest level, the AI just compares prices and features so a human can make the final choice. - At the highest level, your personal AI agent negotiates directly with a store's AI agent to get the best price and shipping terms. Brands will increasingly compete to win over algorithms rather than just human shoppers. For this to work, retail stores must make their product catalogs and return policies machine-readable by software via API If a brand only focuses on looking good to humans but hides its inventory data, the AI agents will simply ignore it. Stores that expose their pricing and stock data through clear software connections will dominate this new landscape, while those relying purely on flashy marketing will lose out as machines make the actual purchasing choices. Automation ranges from simple product comparisons to full machine-to-machine negotiation.