Agentic commerce takes flight: how can travel, digital, and retail brands prepare?

Maria Prados, Senior Vice President for Go-to-Market at Worldpay, discusses the impact of agentic commerce on brands in travel, digital, and retail, emphasising that agentic commerce became one of the most transformative trends in the payments industry. 

Agentic commerce is rapidly emerging as the most transformative trend in the payments industry since the rise of online shopping – but its path from concept to everyday reality hinges on consumer trust. To understand how quickly this shift could reshape shopping behaviour, Worldpay surveyed 8,000 consumers across the US, the UK, France, Brazil, China, Singapore, and Australia. Respondents were given a clear description of an AI shopping agent and shared how comfortable they would feel allowing it to make purchases across key categories. 

The results show strong interest – especially for functional or lower-risk purchases – and a belief that AI agents will save money and simplify decision-making. While trust levels vary by market, and most respondents want reassurances around control and fraud protection, the overall consumer enthusiasm signals that agentic commerce could accelerate faster than anticipated. This shift won’t only reshape merchant experiences – PSPs, issuer banks, fintech platforms, and risk teams across the payments ecosystem will also need to adapt as agent-led transactions become more common.

Travel: the first true proving ground

Travel is the category where autonomous shopping is most intuitive. Booking a trip requires countless decisions: price tracking, inventory checks, loyalty optimisation, and rebooking when plans change. Automation fits naturally here.

Our research shows that consumers are significantly more comfortable delegating higher-value travel purchases than other categories. Nearly one-third of global shoppers (23-31%) would trust an agent to manage travel purchases between USD 101 – 500, and almost one-quarter (19-24%) – up to USD 1,000. Even at the highest tier, 2-3% would allow an agent to execute purchases above USD 5,000.

Thus, merchants face both opportunity and pressure. As more of the travel journey becomes agent-led, merchants must ensure that every payment request – human or machine – can be authorised quickly and consistently across markets. Tokenization at scale, global acquiring coverage, and performance optimisation become critical. 

Digital goods and subscriptions: from automated to autonomous

Digital commerce already operates close to agentic behaviour. Consumers are familiar with automated renewals, in-app purchases, and low-friction micro-transactions, as seen in the findings. Half of global consumers (~50%) would trust an agent with digital purchases of up to USD 50, the highest ‘yes’ rate in any vertical. Comfort remains strong for higher amounts: 22-27% would allow USD 51-USD 100 purchases, and 11-16% are open to USD 101-USD 500.

The next evolution is intelligence. Instead of simply renewing subscriptions, agents will adjust tiers based on real usage: anticipating in-game needs, optimising bundles, and removing unused services proactively. This shift requires payment systems that can support high-frequency, autonomous transactions without failure. With tokenization, intelligent retries, and flexible settlement models, Worldpay helps platforms maintain reliability even as the volume of agent-initiated transactions grows.

Retail: the mainstream opportunity

Retail is where agentic commerce enters everyday life. Consumers face overwhelming choice – from household essentials to seasonal purchases – and automation offers practical relief.

Our research shows that 30-34% of consumers would trust agents to make retail purchases up to USD 50, and 27-32% – USD 51-USD 100. Retail also outperforms digital in the mid-value range: 21-24% of respondents would allow autonomous purchases of USD 101 to 500.

This reflects where agentic retail will have the most impact: automating replenishment, comparing prices across merchants, and predicting recurring needs. Worldpay enables retailers to make this shift with strong global acceptance, identity-free authentication flows, and authorisation optimisation for autonomous transactions.

What should merchants prioritise?

As more decisions shift from people to trusted agents, merchants – and the wider payments ecosystem – should strengthen transaction infrastructures with:

• Invisible payments: agents function best when nothing slows them down. Tokenization, stored credentials, and consistent global authorisation provide the reliability autonomous shopping requires.
• Intelligent routing support: agents seek the most cost-efficient, dependable path. Merchants, PSPs, and acquirers should embrace orchestration and routing flexibility to mirror this pattern.
• Improved ecosystem interoperability: PSPs and banks will be key in enabling agentic commerce by improving API consistency, aligning authorisation logic, and supporting the data signals agents depend on.
• Consumer-centric controls: shoppers want transparency. Spend limits, approval settings, and simple controls strengthen trust as consumers delegate routine decisions.
• Leverage Data-as-a-Service: agentic commerce relies on real-time signals. Payment insights help merchants and PSPs identify patterns and remove friction before it occurs. For fintechs, agentic commerce represents an emerging class of autonomous payment flows that will require new risk models, authorisation strategies, and data partnerships.

A new era of customer experience

Agentic commerce marks a structural shift in how consumers shop. The data shows people’s openness to agent-led purchases at meaningful value levels across travel, digital goods, and retail. Merchants, PSPs, and banks that prepare now will deliver experiences that feel effortless, intuitive, and global from day one. With the right payment foundations, brands can turn agentic commerce into a competitive advantage. Explore market-by-market insights and the full analysis in the Agentic Commerce Report.

 

This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Global Ecommerce Report 2026, which provides a complete overview of key trends and strategies to help businesses worldwide succeed. Download your free copy today to explore in-depth insights on global ecommerce trends, the latest innovations in payment solutions, and strategies to stay ahead in a competitive market.

 

About the author

Maria Prados is the Senior Vice President for Go-To-Market, Global Enterprise, at Worldpay. Since 2013, she has led vertical growth, commercialisation, and enterprise partnerships for some of the world’s biggest brands. She previously helped drive digital transformation at Dixons Retail and began her career in financial services. She holds an MBA from IESE and Columbia Business School.

 

About Worldpay

Worldpay powers global commerce for millions of merchants worldwide. Our payments technology processes over 50 billion transactions annually across 174 countries and 135 currencies. We help businesses take, make, and manage payments through global acquiring, cross-border capabilities, intelligent optimisation and deep industry expertise. With Worldpay, merchants gain a partner committed to unleashing their growth potential.