There are moments when you can feel that something fundamental is shifting. For me, that moment is now. I have been following the evolution of digital commerce for years, but rarely have I seen such a clear sign that we are standing on the edge of a paradigm shift. The term for it is Agentic Commerce. At first glance, it sounds like one of those tech buzzwords you hear once and then forget. But if you look closely, you will see that this is the beginning of a development that will radically reshape shopping over the next decade.

Agentic Commerce simply means that shopping is carried out by machines on behalf of people. It is about a world where we no longer click, browse, and fill out forms ourselves, but instead, our digital agents handle all of it for us. These agents know what we like, how much we want to spend, which brands we prefer, and which returns have annoyed us in the past. They act for us, they complete purchases, and they communicate directly with merchant systems.

The Current State – More Than Just a Vision

A few months ago, OpenAI together with Stripe introduced the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). This allows merchants to describe their products in a language that is not just human-readable but machine-readable. Etsy is already live, and Shopify is preparing to onboard millions of merchants. Today, if you search for a gift in ChatGPT, you can already complete a purchase directly within the conversation. No checkout forms, no visible transaction screen, no login.

What still feels like an experiment is in truth the opening of a door into a new world of commerce. Behind this door lies a future where the checkout becomes invisible. Merchants will no longer debate whether their buy button should be green or blue. The button will no longer exist. The decision to purchase happens invisibly, within seconds, and it happens where the data is best prepared.

Who Writes the Rules of the Game

For Agentic Commerce to function, it requires standards and protocols. And right now, there is a race underway. OpenAI and Stripe have established ACP as an open protocol standard. Companies like Forter are developing trust layers that ensure merchants can trust an agent before accepting its actions. Without such trust mechanisms, no one would let machines authorize real money transactions.

On the data side, organizations like schema.org and GS1 play a crucial role. Their standards for product data, GTINs, and digital links are the real currency of this new world. Merchants who fail to prepare clean product information will simply become invisible to agents.

And then there is regulation. The EU AI Act and the Digital Markets Act already define how AI systems must operate transparently and how platforms with gatekeeping power must behave. In Europe, no Agentic Commerce ecosystem will grow without following these rules of the game.

How We Will Shop in Five Years

When I picture the year 2030, I see a type of shopping that no longer depends on screens. People will simply express their needs through natural language. I imagine myself sitting at breakfast and asking my agent to order a pair of new running shoes. The agent knows which brand fits me, what budget I am comfortable with, and that I need them delivered before the weekend. It checks availability, compares delivery times, considers sustainability scores, and completes the purchase. All I see is a short confirmation.

The same will apply to grocery shopping. I will give my agent constraints like budget, dietary preferences, or calorie goals. From this, it will build a shopping plan, purchase from suitable merchants, and automatically optimize for price, availability, and speed of delivery.

Travel will follow the same pattern. I will simply say: Family holiday, near the sea, no more than four hours flight, climate-neutral. The agent will book flights, hotels, transfers, and insurance. I will only review the final summary.

In the B2B space, company agents will automatically replenish office supplies when inventory drops. They will negotiate prices, evaluate delivery terms, and factor in sustainability metrics before placing the order.

How It Could Look in Ten Years

By 2035, shopping will barely be a conscious process. Most purchases will happen invisibly in the background. My agent will make sure there is always enough coffee, that spare parts for household devices arrive on time, and that subscriptions are optimized without me ever asking.

The next stage will be that agents negotiate on our behalf. Prices, bundles, and shipping options will be dynamically exchanged between merchant and agent. Merchants will no longer publish fixed price lists. Instead, they will release rules and policies that agents can interpret and negotiate with.

The entry points into shopping will also transform. Today, we still begin on search engines or e commerce websites. By 2035, purchases will begin in the car, in an augmented reality headset, or in a conversation with a household device. The transaction itself will remain invisible, executed entirely in the background by agents.

Opportunities and Risks for Merchants

The opportunities are tremendous. Conversion rates will soar because every point of friction disappears. Accessibility will improve dramatically since people can simply buy using their voice, without navigating interfaces. Merchants who maintain perfectly structured data will rise in agent rankings and gain visibility and revenue.

But there are also serious risks. Merchants may lose the direct customer relationship, as agents become the interface. The connection between brand and consumer could be filtered or even replaced by machines. And if only a handful of major players control the agent ecosystem, a new generation of gatekeepers will emerge.

The greatest challenge remains data hygiene. Merchants with messy product catalogs, incorrect GTINs, or poorly defined product variants will simply become invisible in Agentic Commerce.

What Needs to Be Done Now

The most urgent task for merchants is to clean up their data foundation. Products must have unique identifiers, clear descriptions, and machine readable policies for shipping and returns. Those who invest now will gain a decisive advantage.

At the same time, it makes sense to run early tests with the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Connecting even a small product set, monitoring transactions, and gathering insights is the right step at this stage. Merchants should also prepare their compliance strategies. Transparency, logging, and customer consent will become mandatory even for machine driven transactions.

Why This Captivates Me

For me, Agentic Commerce today feels like Mobile Commerce in 2010. Back then, few believed that smartphones would dominate retail. Yet, only a few years later, the majority of purchases were made through mobile devices. The market was reshaped in ways few had predicted.

I see the same happening now. Within five years, a significant portion of our purchases will be delegated to agents. Within ten years, manual checkouts will feel like a relic of the past. Shopping will no longer be a conscious process. It will become a permanent background service woven into everyday life.

And here is the most exciting part: We are only at the beginning. Those who take data, standards, and protocols seriously today, those who understand the new gatekeepers while securing their independence, will not only survive the next decade but actively shape it.

The future of commerce will not be clicked. It will be negotiated.