A.I.-native commerce is collapsing the traditional funnel and forcing brands to rethink visibility, trust and control. Unsplash

For the past decade, it seems that while technology has become increasingly advanced, the online shopping experience has remained largely the same: endless scrolling, reviews we don’t fully trust and price comparisons that often create more confusion than clarity. Despite improvements in logistics and payments, the core workflow—search, scroll, compare, repeat—has barely evolved. With the rise of A.I., that equilibrium is finally breaking. 

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2026 marks the first true departure from the e-commerce model most consumers have grown accustomed to. For the first time, shopping journeys are no longer anchored in static catalogs or keyword searches. They’re increasingly mediated by intelligence systems that can interpret intent, synthesize options and act on behalf of the consumer.

The rise of A.I.-native shopping, accelerated and exemplified by the first truly agentic holiday shopping season, has made one thing clear: it’s no longer enough for brands to optimize for human shoppers alone. They must also optimize for the A.I. agents that increasingly discover, compare, validate and transact on those shoppers’ behalf. Retail has acquired a new operating system, and it’s powered by agency rather than search.

Agentic commerce becomes retail’s new........

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