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AI Is a Great Shopping Assistant, But Consumers Won't Give It the Company Card
A new study reveals a major trust gap in e-commerce, with 73% of consumers using AI for research but only 13% allowing an AI agent to make a purchase.
Key Points
- A new study reveals a major trust gap in e-commerce, with 73% of consumers using AI for research but only 13% allowing an AI agent to make a purchase.
- Consumer hesitation stems from concerns over payment security, privacy, potential errors, and a general loss of control over the purchasing process.
- The rise of "agentic commerce" creates new challenges for merchants, who face unclear liability for fraud or mistakes made by AI shopping agents.
- Despite the trust gap, nearly 60% of consumers plan to use AI tools for holiday gift shopping, increasing the urgency for merchants to address liability issues.
A new global study from Riskified reveals a major trust gap in e-commerce: while 73% of consumers use AI for research, only 13% have let an AI agent make a purchase, a finding. The data shows shoppers are happy to let AI be a co-pilot, but they won't hand over the keys.
Look but don't touch: The concept of AI shopping isn't a dealbreaker for most; a surprising 70% of consumers say they have at least some comfort with an AI agent handling their purchases. The hesitation boils down to trust. For a third of shoppers, payment security is the top concern, followed by privacy, potential mistakes, and a general loss of control.
The holiday headache: AI is still set to play a big role in the upcoming holiday season, with nearly 60% of consumers saying they're likely to use the tools for gift shopping. The trend is creating a new headache for merchants, who are caught between offering the convenience of AI-driven research and navigating a new frontier of liability when things go wrong.
Who's to blame?: The core issue for merchants is that ambiguity. "AI shopping agents may make buying easier for consumers, but they also blur the lines of accountability for fraud and policy abuse,” said Jeff Otto, Chief Marketing Officer at Riskified. That uncertainty taps into existing user skepticism, as research from Gartner, highlighted by Customer Experience News | CX Dive, shows 2 in 5 consumers find AI-generated search summaries make the process more frustrating.
As the industry moves toward "agentic commerce"—where AI handles purchases autonomously—the challenge is less about technology and more about accountability. "Fraud teams are the natural leaders for agentic commerce safety because they're hardwired to see both the opportunity and the risk," Otto stated, adding their role is to build the "guardrails that allow the company to say 'yes' confidently."
