As agentic shopping becomes more commonplace, how do you dispute a purchase your AI made?
Companies are preparing for a near future where consumers will allow AI agents to shop on their behalf.
Studies have found that most European consumers already use AI to help shape their purchase decisions, but not at checkout, where the money passes hands – although that could change, and fast.
‘Agentic commerce’ is seen as a natural consequence of AI-powered search, which already makes up more than half of global search engine volume. McKinsey trend analysis finds this number could rise significantly over the coming years.
McKinsey found that by 2030, agentic commerce could orchestrate up to $5trn globally. But while Morgan Stanley earlier this year noted that only 1pc of shoppers currently choose the agentic route, newer research elsewhere finds that AI agents could make up a significant portion of customers a business receives in the coming years.
In the background, infrastructure works to make agentic commerce possible are underway at fintechs such as Revolut, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. More are expected to follow.
Did you mean to buy that?
A growing number of users say they would trust AI systems to place orders and execute payments on their behalf. But such a combination of trust and automation will end up creating a whole new category of purchase disputes that companies are yet to get ahead of, says Monica Eaton, the founder and CEO of Chargebacks 911.
“The infrastructure for agentic commerce is being built quickly, but the safeguards need to evolve at the same pace,” she says.
In the era of agentic commerce, both customers and businesses will find it hard to define intent – or a lack thereof – when purchases are made by AI agents. It is easier to determine intent when humans make a deliberate choice to press ‘buy’, but agentic commerce removes that moment in the transaction. And currently, there aren’t many ways to dispute an agentic AI-made purchase, Eaton notes.
“Most customers do not have access to detailed records of the instructions they gave, the permissions in place, or how the agent reached its decision. In many cases, the transaction is technically authorised, which makes it difficult to challenge,” she adds.
To solve this, platforms need to prioritise transparency before a transaction occurs. The AI agent in question must be able to show what it is about to do and why, and ensure it has customer authorisation before going forward with a transaction. An audit trail for agentic purchases will provide an added layer of protection, says Eaton.
Meanwhile, clear permission frameworks that define where and what agents can purchase, and how much they can spend, will further protect customers.
This may only work in the short term, says Eaton. Longer term protections would involve platforms providing transparency and access to activity logs, while dispute processes will need to evolve to recognise when an agent’s decision does not align with the customer’s intent.
Shift in responsibility
This new category of purchase dispute lies somewhere between fraud and ‘buyer’s remorse’, and current systems are not equipped to handle this anomaly, says Eaton.
“In an agentic environment, platforms need to take greater responsibility for how instructions are captured, interpreted and executed”, and merchants should not be expected to absorb this liability by default, she explains.
Moreover, if effective frameworks are not built ahead of time, customers could end up in a situation where they are arguing with an AI customer service bot about an unauthorised purchase made by a personal AI agent.
There is still time to get ahead of this eventuality, but the window is narrowing, Eaton says. “Businesses need to treat agentic commerce as a fundamentally different transaction environment, not just a faster version of existing e-commerce.”
It is important not to wait for regulation to catch up, Eaton warns. “Businesses that build trust into agentic commerce early will be in a much stronger position than those that react later.
“As for the future of customer service, it does not have to become AI versus AI. The key is to keep the human at the centre of the process. Agentic commerce should reflect and support human intent. If that principle is lost, trust will follow.”
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