Mastercard's newly published research forecasts that AI-driven consumer spending could reach GBP370 billion a year globally by 2030, with more than 300 million online shoppers routinely using AI agents to shop and pay by then (commercetools Blog). However, current consumer behavior remains concentrated in early-funnel activities. Deloitte's survey of 13,500 European consumers found that more than half already use AI for shopping, with Spain, Poland, Hungary and Italy leading at 60%+ shopper penetration (commercetools Blog). Yet willingness to delegate collapses at checkout: only 8% of consumers are willing to hand comparison and price-finding tasks to AI, compared to 24–34% for discovery (commercetools Blog).
Trust in payment brands significantly influences autonomous transaction readiness. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney noted that roughly three-quarters of consumers don't trust agentic platforms to make payments autonomously, but that figure flips to 61% when a trusted payment brand is in the loop, rising to 71% among consumers who use LLMs weekly (commercetools Blog). Generational divergence is emerging: 18% of teens already use an AI assistant weekly to compare products versus 10% of parents, and a third of teens said they'd hand full control to an AI agent that chooses and pays for products (commercetools Blog). Privacy concerns, once the top barrier, are softening faster than expected; in Germany, the share of AI users citing data and privacy as a top concern fell from 52% in 2025 to about 30% in 2026 (commercetools Blog).
On the platform side, the competitive landscape is fragmenting. OpenAI's Instant Checkout remains paused, but Visa announced a strategic collaboration with OpenAI to bring payment and security infrastructure into OpenAI's commerce experiences (commercetools Blog). Google is moving further down the funnel with UCP-powered checkout rolling out in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, while Universal Cart connects products across retailers and supports checkout through Google Pay (commercetools Blog). Meanwhile, retailers including Home Depot, Best Buy and Kohl's are launching their own brand-owned AI assistants, with Home Depot expanding its Magic Apron assistant to all 2,000+ US locations to connect discovery with local inventory and in-store navigation (commercetools Blog).