Agentic Commerce Is Here — What Retailers Need to Know

Your next customer might not be a person

Microsoft and Rezolve AI took the stage at the 38th Annual Roth Conference on March 24 to lay out a vision that should get every retailer’s attention: agentic commerce, where AI agents handle the full shopping experience from product discovery to checkout. Not chatbots. Not product recommendation widgets. Autonomous agents that research, compare, negotiate, and buy on behalf of real customers.

If that sounds abstract, consider this: 23% of Americans already made a purchase using AI in the past month, and during Cyber Week 2025, one in five orders involved an AI agent. The shift is not coming. It is here.

What happened

The Roth Conference announcement

Rezolve AI CEO Daniel Wagner and Microsoft’s Vic Miles (Americas GM for Retail and Consumer Goods) held a fireside chat titled “The Age of Agentic Commerce — Challenges and Opportunities.” The discussion centered on their growing partnership and how retailers can use AI-powered solutions to drive smarter engagement and stronger conversion.

Rezolve, which trades on NASDAQ under RZLV, reported 543% revenue growth in H2 2025 and raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $360 million. They are positioning themselves as “the transaction layer for agentic commerce.”

The numbers behind the shift

The scale of this trend is hard to overstate:

$60.4 billion — current size of the agentic AI in retail market, projected to hit $218 billion by 2031 at a 29% annual growth rate
$1-5 trillion — McKinsey’s projection for global agentic commerce revenue by 2030
1,200% — year-over-year surge in retailer traffic from AI-powered sources, even as traditional search traffic declined 10%
6% of all web searches now flow through AI answer engines rather than traditional search results

Why this matters for small retailers

The “new front door” is a conversation

Microsoft calls agentic commerce the new front door to retail. Instead of browsing pages and clicking filters, shoppers tell an AI agent something like: “I need a durable gift under fifty dollars for someone who works outdoors.” The agent finds it, compares options, and handles the purchase.

This changes who — or what — actually visits your store’s website. When an AI agent evaluates your products, it does not care about your logo, your banner ads, or your loyalty program. It cares about structured data: accurate descriptions, real-time inventory, clear pricing, and verified reviews.

The data gap is the real threat

Most small retailers built their online presence for human browsers, not AI agents. MIT Sloan research found that 82% of executives name data quality as the biggest barrier to their AI goals. For a small retailer with product descriptions that say “great quality, buy now!” instead of structured specs, that gap is even wider.

The practical risk: when an AI agent shops for your category and your product data is thin, you are invisible. Not ranked low — invisible. This is the same dynamic we covered when ChatGPT launched AI-powered shopping with Walmart and Target. The platforms favor merchants with rich, machine-readable product information.

Small businesses are not locked out — yet

Here is the encouraging part: we are still in the early innings. Bain & Company estimates that 30-45% of consumers use generative AI to research products, but conversion from AI traffic still lags behind traditional channels by 86%. The infrastructure is immature. That means small retailers who invest in data quality now can build a real advantage before the market hardens.

At the recent Shoptalk Spring conference, even Home Depot’s CIO admitted they are still “testing to see what consumers are going to latch onto.” If the largest retailers are still figuring it out, a focused small business that moves fast has a real window.

What you should do now

You do not need to rebuild your entire tech stack. Start with the basics that make your products visible to AI agents:

Clean up your product data. Every item needs structured attributes: materials, dimensions, use cases, care instructions. Write descriptions that answer real questions, not marketing fluff. This is the single highest-ROI action you can take.
Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile. AI agents pull from the same data sources that power local search. Accurate hours, photos, inventory information, and review responses all feed the machine. Our post on AI chatbots for West Virginia retail covers the local discovery angle in depth.
Get your reviews in order. AI agents weigh verified reviews heavily when comparing options. Respond to every review — positive and negative. If you are managing reviews manually across platforms, an AI review management tool can keep you consistent without adding hours to your week.
Think about your AI-readiness. As 42% of businesses now run AI agents in production, the question is not whether your competitors will adopt this technology but when. Start small: automate customer intake, set up a chatbot for after-hours inquiries, or use AI to keep your inventory data accurate.

Watch for these signals

Shopify’s agentic commerce tools — Shopify is building AI shopping agent integration for its merchants. If you are on Shopify, this could level the playing field quickly.
Google Shopping in AI Mode — AI-powered product discovery is already changing how local businesses surface in search results.
More AI shopping partnerships — expect announcements throughout 2026 as platforms compete to be the agent commerce infrastructure layer.

The bottom line

Agentic commerce is not a buzzword — it is a fundamental shift in how products get discovered and purchased. The retailers who win will be the ones with clean data, responsive customer service, and the willingness to adapt their digital presence for AI-first discovery.

The good news: you do not need a Fortune 500 budget to do this. You need accurate product information, strong reviews, and a willingness to start now. If you want help getting your business ready for the agentic commerce wave, explore our small business AI solutions or get in touch.