Agentic shopping could account for more than a quarter of ecommerce spending within the next few years, according to a September 2025 Boston Consulting Group report. But that potential hinges on retailers integrating AI into the shopping journey in ways that feel beneficial to consumers.

“As AI shopping becomes more conversational, the differentiation won’t be the interface, it will be how well the technology understands the human behind the prompt,” said Crystal Foote, founder and head of partnerships at Digital Culture Group. “Two consumers can take the same action for entirely different reasons, and the platforms that can interpret that context, whether it’s saving time, staying on budget or planning for something meaningful, will ultimately drive stronger outcomes.”

Striking the right balance between innovation and a seamless customer experience will require continuous iteration as retailers refine and evolve their approaches.

Instant Checkout reset

Walmart initially made roughly 200,000 products available for direct purchase within ChatGPT's Instant Checkout, where users could browse and buy items directly within the chatbot interface. It has since pivoted, bringing its own chatbot, Sparky, into the ChatGPT environment instead.

The original experience required ChatGPT users to purchase items individually, creating friction. As a result, conversion rates were three times lower for products sold directly inside the chatbot compared with those requiring users to click out, according to Daniel Danker, Walmart's executive vice president of AI acceleration, product, and design, in comments to Wired.

Yet Walmart can’t afford to ignore the channel: ChatGPT reportedly drives about twice as many new customers as traditional search engines, according to Danker.

• By integrating Sparky, the retailer is aiming to balance acquisition with stronger conversion and larger basket sizes.
• Sparky users spend about 35% more than other shoppers, according to Walmart US CEO David Guggina.

Even OpenAI is still iterating on the right model for agentic commerce.

• ChatGPT phased out Instant Checkout last month, shifting toward a framework where transactions are completed via third-party apps.
• At the same time, the platform has revamped the shopping experience to focus more on discovery, allowing users to browse by budget, preferences, and constraints, explore visually, upload inspiration images, and refine results conversationally.

That willingness to adapt may ultimately define success in this space.

“OpenAI's reversal on Instant Checkout is not a retreat from agentic commerce,” said Joe Doran, chief product officer at Botify. “They stepped back because the first version didn’t deliver the flexibility they aspire to provide, and retail runs on flexibility. They listened to feedback from retailers and consumers rather than forcing a half-fit product into the market.”

Starting customer-first

Learning from early movers, companies like Macy’s, Gap, and Sephora are prioritizing customer-centric approaches to agentic commerce from the very beginning.

For example, Macy’s recently introduced AI chatbot, Ask Macy’s, enables product discovery, personalized recommendations, and even virtual apparel try-on.

“[Ask Macy’s] is not about search,” said chief customer and digital officer Max Magni at Shoptalk 2026. “It’s about curated discovery. We’re not just giving customers what they’re searching for, but what they need and what they want.”

Gap Inc. is taking a slightly different approach, making its products shoppable through Google Gemini via Google’s Universal Commerce Platform (UCP), enabling seamless checkout across emerging AI-native environments.

“We are not pursuing AI for novelty,” said Sven Gerjets, chief technology officer of Gap Inc., in a statement. “These partnerships are about solving real customer problems, helping shoppers feel confident about fit and making it easier to complete a purchase. They also reflect the holistic AI strategy we’ve built to scale intelligence across the enterprise in a disciplined way that drives measurable value over time.”

Sephora, meanwhile, is embedding itself directly into conversational ecosystems by linking its consumer app with ChatGPT.

• Users can get beauty advice, receive product recommendations, and even apply loyalty rewards within the chat experience.
• Future updates are expected to enable in-chat payments and checkout.

Sephora’s move to embed its loyalty program into ChatGPT underscores a broader strategic shift. As AI-assisted shopping grows, surfacing rewards, offers, and benefits within these environments will become critical: 70% of global shoppers say they are at least somewhat interested in using AI agents to maximize their loyalty benefits, according to December 2024 data from Salesforce.

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