Retail has already experienced multiple waves of digital disruption, from the rise of e-commerce to marketplaces, social commerce, and omnichannel retail. Each wave reshaped how customers discover products and how brands compete for attention.
However, agentic commerce completely challenges this existing status quo.
Customers now rely on AI assistants not just to search for products, but to compare options, apply constraints, evaluate tradeoffs, and complete purchases on their behalf. Platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity are quickly evolving into commerce environments where discovery happens through natural language and agent-led decision-making rather than traditional keyword search.
For retailers and brands, this creates both opportunity and exposure. AI assistants can unlock highly qualified demand, expand reach, and open new revenue channels. At the same time, they can create distance between businesses and their customers when discovery and purchasing move to third-party interfaces. Winning in this new environment requires a dual strategy: remaining visible in agent-driven discovery while building brand-owned AI experiences that strengthen direct customer relationships. Solutions such as Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (GECX) enable retailers to create these branded agentic experiences by combining shopping and post-purchase engagement on a unified platform.
Download the e-book to learn how agentic commerce is taking shape, what is driving adoption, how AI shopping assistants and commerce protocols are changing the buying journey, and what retailers must do now to stay competitive.
Where agentic commerce is headed
AI agents are reshaping product discovery, redefining how brands compete for visibility and loyalty, and pushing retailers to build their own agentic experiences to stay in control of the customer journey.
Drivers of agentic commerce
Consumers increasingly trust AI assistants to research products, compare options, and support purchasing decisions. Advanced multimodal LLMs understand intent across text, voice, and images, enabling more abstract searches. Protocols such as Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) allow AI agents to interact directly with merchant systems to discover products, compare offers, and complete purchases securely.
Brand visibility and loyalty redefined
AI agents favor merchants with machine-readable catalogs that include structured attributes, consistent metadata, accurate pricing, and real-time inventory. Investing in enriched product data, clean taxonomies, well-structured APIs, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) improves brand visibility in agent-driven discovery. At the same time, reliable fulfillment, frictionless returns, personalized engagement, and strong service improve customer loyalty post-purchase.
Why retailers need their own agentic experiences
AI-native experiences help retailers strengthen customer relationships and maintain trust even as discovery shifts toward third-party AI agents. Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, developed by Grid Dynamics and Google Cloud, enables brands to connect shopping and customer service on a single platform, combining Vertex AI Search, Agent Studio, and Grid Dynamics accelerators to design, deploy, and manage AI agents across the entire customer lifecycle.
A snapshot of agentic commerce experiences
