Imagine never scrolling through endless product pages or comparing prices across online stores again. Agentic Commerce makes this a reality.

AI agents shop on your behalf. "Zero-click search" becomes the new normal. The consequence? Traffic to online stores may drop dramatically as AI agents take over the shopping journey.

Tech giants are moving fast. ChatGPT introduced Instant Checkout, completing purchases directly within the chat. OpenAI has partnered with big companies like Walmart, Target, Uber and Expedia Group. OpenAI also launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard for AI-driven transactions.

Perplexity entered early with Buy with Pro, enabling one-click purchases via PayPal. In January 2026, Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) at the National Retail Federation conference. Co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, UCP establishes a common language for AI agents to interact with commerce systems, removing the need for custom integrations.

Amazon has taken a different approach with "Buy For Me", an agentic tool letting consumers shop other retailers without leaving Amazon's app. Simultaneously, Amazon has blocked OpenAI crawlers, creating what analysts call an "island strategy."

Visa and Mastercard are racing to build the infrastructure for AI-driven transactions. Both companies have completed pilot programmes with selected users and merchants. Visa's APAC Head of Products and Solutions, T.R. Ramachandran, confirmed that commercial use of personalised, secure agent transactions could launch as early as Q1 2026.

Mastercard's technology will allow shoppers to authorise agents to make purchases even when offline, such as automatically buying a product if its price drops below a preset threshold. UCP has been endorsed by major payment providers including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, American Express, and Adyen, signalling industry-wide commitment to making agentic payments seamless and secure.

For Nordic markets, this development is significant. Klarna and Vipps are well-positioned to integrate with agentic commerce protocols given their existing payment infrastructure. Zalando, already a UCP endorser, may become an early mover in European agentic commerce.

For traditional retailers, the rise of AI agents can bring fundamental changes. Direct customer contact declines. Customer journeys become invisible and difficult to influence. Brand loyalty weakens as AI agents become intermediaries. Upselling opportunities reduce drastically.

More than two-thirds of global retailers believe AI agents will handle most customer interactions within five years. An equal number believe online stores failing to adapt will fall behind within two years.

However, some experts urge caution. Forrester analyst Emily Pfeiffer states: "The experiences that are out there today, in my opinion, are extremely premature." Shopping currently accounts for only about 2% of ChatGPT queries. The infrastructure is being built, but mass adoption will take time.

We believe Agentic Commerce will initially evolve as an additional marketing channel, requiring the same strategic focus as SEO, paid search, and social media. Rather than replacing traditional commerce, it will complement it, much like how businesses once had to learn to optimise for Google, they must now learn to optimise for AI agents.

This requires a shift from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) toward Generative Experience Optimisation (GXO). Online stores must invest in authoritative, semantically rich, machine-readable structured data adapted to AI agents' systems.

Structured data alone is not enough. AI agents pull insights from Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube. ChatGPT's Shopping Research feature prioritises community discussions over brand-owned content. Building trust across the entire digital ecosystem becomes essential.

New advertising formats are emerging. Google's Direct Offers surfaces exclusive discounts when AI detects purchase intent. By 2029, U.S. spending on AI agent search advertising is estimated to reach $26 billion, according to eMarketer.

For Norwegian retailers, this shift arrives at a critical moment. While U.S. adoption leads, the global nature of platforms like ChatGPT and Google means Norwegian consumers will gain access to these features as they roll out. Retailers who prepare now will have first-mover advantage when agentic commerce reaches the Nordic market at scale.

Test your AI visibility. Search for your product category in ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. See which competitors appear. This reveals your current standing.

Optimise your product feeds. A well-optimised Google Merchant feed remains essential for product visibility, while structured product feeds for ChatGPT are becoming increasingly important. In ChatGPT, the feed acts as the primary source of truth for product data and supports formats like CSV, XML, and JSON with frequent updates. Key attributes include product ID, title, description, price, availability, reviews, and popularity.

Implement schema markup. Ensure product data includes schema.org markup. Server-rendered JSON-LD is essential. Client-side rendering remains invisible to AI crawlers.

Build off-site reputation. AI agents weight Reddit and community discussions heavily. Genuine engagement across forums and review sites strengthens visibility.

Monitor AI traffic. Track whether traffic from AI platforms appears in your analytics. This informs future investment.

Watch the protocols. Google's UCP and OpenAI's ACP set the standards. Follow to understand the fundamentals and which merchants can already access Agentic Storefronts connecting products to ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini.