What merchants really think about agentic commerce

Agentic commerce is already driving the next shift in online shopping. Right now, a shopper is asking an AI assistant where to buy running shoes, compare skincare brands, or find a better laptop bag. The answers they get are defined by which merchants have embraced the agentic evolution and already begun preparing for AI influence.

By 2030, the agentic commerce market is expected to grow to $1.7 trillion.¹ In response to this potential, many businesses are exploring how this shift may affect their customer acquisition and sales strategies. The other question is how soon. Most merchants believe it will affect their business within a year. They’re planning the next step, if they haven’t already taken it.

To understand how businesses are navigating the change, PayPal commissioned the Agentic Commerce Pulse Report, a quantitative and qualitative study of 498 U.S. merchants across small businesses, mid-market, and large enterprise segments.

The goal was simple: find out what merchants actually think about this shift, how far along they are, and what’s standing in their way.

Five findings from the report stood out.

1. Merchants see agentic commerce as a requirement, not just an upgrade

Agentic commerce is no longer an emerging or fringe concept for merchants. 91% of small businesses, 97% of mid-market merchants, and 99% of large enterprises reported being at least somewhat familiar with agentic commerce. For many business owners, agentic commerce isn’t just another trend. It’s the next major platform shift, comparable to the internet or smartphones.

“It’s not just something that’s optional, it’s required. You need to use it, and you need to learn how to use it.”

-Small Business, Fashion

“I think it’s a significant paradigm shift that I don’t think we’ve totally absorbed yet, and what it might look like.”

-Large Enterprise, Dance Apparel

This shift isn’t just about finding new customers. Merchants see it as essential to retaining the customers they already have. 86% of large enterprises, 76% of mid-market businesses, and 78% of small businesses agree that delaying adoption risks losing customers. They’re already seeing proof of its influence: a third of large enterprises say agentic commerce is meaningfully impacting their business right now, and even small businesses are starting to see sales emerging through platforms like ChatGPT.

“We’re only at the beginning stage. I can see that we’re getting sales from ChatGPT. That’s with us doing the minimal amount, so there’s only upside.”

-Small Business, Fashion

The optimism around agentic commerce is across the board, whether the changes have been felt already or not. 94% of large enterprises expect a positive impact in the next 12–24 months, but business owners of all sizes believe agentic commerce will benefit their business. Merchants cite new customers, increased traffic, and more personalized experiences as the areas where they expect to see the most impact.

Merchants are not asking whether agentic commerce matters. They are asking how quickly they need to adapt.

2. AI visibility is the new competitive battleground

The research suggests merchants are increasingly focused on one question: will AI systems surface my products when shoppers are ready to buy?

Across segments, access to new customers is the most frequently cited expected benefit of agentic commerce. Larger businesses are somewhat more likely to emphasize personalization and sales lift as a potential benefit. Smaller businesses are more likely to focus on site traffic and reach. But the shared concern is visibility.

“We do see a lot of people are moving over to ChatGPT or Claude for their search and discovery. So it’s about being there because otherwise, if we’re not there, then they just don’t know about us.”

-Large Enterprise, Health and Beauty

That makes AI discoverability a direct revenue issue, not just a brand awareness exercise. Some merchants are already seeing traffic from AI agents. Nearly half of businesses of all sizes report actively tracking visits or transactions from AI agents, with almost 95% reporting at least partial visibility.

But many businesses have work to do. Only about one in five have 80% or more of their product catalog available as structured, machine-readable data. That’s the kind of data AI agents need to surface products for relevant queries. Without it, merchants risk being invisible to a growing channel of high-intent buyers.

Merchants who are further along have started implementing schema markup on product detail pages, optimizing site structure for AI crawlability, and preparing checkout systems for agent-initiated transactions.

“We’re implementing things on our site to make us more discoverable by AI. We’ve had a big focus on implementing as much schema as possible so that AI can read and interact with our PDP pages.”

-Large Enterprise, Outdoor Clothing

3. Data security is the top barrier, and trust has to be earned

Optimism about agentic commerce is high, but so is caution. Data security ranks as the single largest barrier to investment across every business size. Large enterprises worry about sensitive corporate data getting exposed. Revenue figures, vendor relationships, margins, and customer PII are potentially vulnerable. Those aren’t hypothetical risks to them.

“I think the biggest fear for most of our team is just security. We don’t know where the information goes. How sensitive of data can we put in there?”

-Large Enterprise, Health and Beauty

Small businesses share those security concerns but also worry about AI systems making pricing or promotional errors, or ranking them below larger competitors. 88% of large enterprises mostly or completely trust AI platforms to accurately represent their brand. Mid-market businesses are at 82%. For small businesses, that number drops to 71%.

Trust is a pillar of customer interaction, especially at checkout. Sales depend on familiar payment infrastructure, ease, and reliability. If an AI agent makes a purchase that a customer disputes, who bears responsibility? Opinions are split. 46% of large enterprises and 41% of small businesses believe culpability lies with the AI platform that executed the purchase, but there’s no clear consensus. Nearly two-thirds of all merchants surveyed say a standardized liability framework, similar to existing chargeback rules for card-not-present transactions, is urgently needed.

“Payment providers need to be able to keep up with security and avoid fraudulent orders with people buying things through AI.”

-Large Enterprise, Health and Beauty

4. The readiness gap for small business vs. enterprise

Not every merchant is navigating this the same way, and the differences go beyond budget.

Large enterprises tend to be further along in AI integration and more likely to have formal strategies in place. But their size slows them down. Legacy infrastructure, governance protocols, and multi-stakeholder sign-offs mean even well-resourced companies can struggle to move quickly. They tend to bring in consultants and agencies to bridge the gap.

“We're running tests in parallel. One agency is working on site technical configuration. I'm making sure all our schemas are set up properly. Then we have a secondary partner looking at enhancing our product detail pages. We're taking lessons learned and implementing.”

-Large Enterprise, Health and Beauty

Small businesses face the opposite problem. They can often move faster, but are more constrained by time, technical expertise, and budget for dedicated AI roles.

Despite these challenges, action has already been taken by businesses of any size. 52% of large enterprises have integrated AI tools into regular operations, as have 53% of mid-market businesses. Among small businesses, 36% have integrated, and another 52% are testing. Close to 60% of all large, mid-market, and small businesses plan to invest in tools or platforms in the next 24 months that reduce the need for in-house AI expertise.

5. Payment providers are expected to lead, not just process

Merchants are figuring out what their business needs to join the agentic commerce revolution. 80% of large enterprises and 74% of small businesses say they need considerable or extensive external support. But both large enterprises and small businesses agree that they expect payment providers to do more than just financial processing.

Expectations of these providers are high. 44% of large enterprises want their payment provider to play a leading role, actively guiding them with tools, standards, and best practices. They view their payment processor as a security guardrail, a partner who can extend fraud protection and buyer/seller coverage to agent-initiated purchases.

How to start prioritizing agentic commerce for your business

Across all businesses, the merchants who report being ahead share a common approach. Starting simple, with low-risk use cases like marketing copy and keeping a human in the review loop. They expand only after seeing measurable results, building trust in their systems over time, and continuously iterating. No one described jumping straight to full automation.

The gap between awareness and readiness is where the opportunity sits. Merchants who are furthest along are rolling up their sleeves and figuring out their biggest practical priorities. Here’s how they’re incorporating agentic commerce now:

• Making product data machine-readable. Structure your catalog through product feeds, APIs, or schema markup so AI agents can access it. Start with top sellers and expand over time.

• Tracking AI-driven traffic. Set up attribution for visits and transactions coming from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. Merchants who track this are already spotting patterns in buyer intent.

• Evaluating checkout infrastructure. About half of merchants say their current payment setup needs minor integration work to support agent-initiated purchases. Assess that now, before volume scales.

• Choosing partners who offer more than software. Merchants want commerce and payment partners who provide guidance, protect data, and extend protections to agentic transactions. Over 40% expect their payment provider to actively lead on this.

• Testing brand representation across AI surfaces. Ask an AI assistant about your product category and see what comes back. Merchants are running parallel tests across platforms and using the results to improve their product data.

With agentic commerce just beginning, merchants are already optimistic about what it can provide: efficiency gains, leaner operations, better personalization, a discoverability advantage, and staying ahead of competitors through early investment.

The full report explores how merchants are balancing opportunity with operational and trust-related challenges as things evolve. The results make clear that merchants aren't debating agentic commerce anymore.

About this research:

*The PayPal Agentic Commerce Pulse Report is based on an online survey of 498 U.S. merchants conducted February 23 – March 3, 2026, spanning small businesses (<$3M revenue, n=166), mid-market ($3M–$20M, n=243), and large enterprises (>$20M, n=189). Seven qualitative interviews were conducted with U.S. merchants across business sizes. Respondents include owners, founders, C-suite, VPs, directors, and managers in e-commerce, payments, digital strategy, and technology roles.