Consumers Aren’t Ready To Delegate Payments To AI Agents

2026-06-15 · Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester · Field: Business & Management — E-commerce & Digital Commerce, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, FinTech & Digital Financial Services · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

A recent Forrester survey of online adults in the US, UK, and Canada reveals that three-quarters are uncomfortable allowing AI shopping agents to autonomously complete purchases and make payments, even with preset spending limits. The primary barriers are a lack of trust, stemming from concerns about loss of control, errors and liability, agentic decision-making, and data security. While convenience is a factor, consumers demand clear controls, transparency, strong protections, and responsive customer support, expecting the AI platform to be responsible for mistakes. Although consumers are willing to let AI agents recommend products, compare options, and even fill shopping carts, their comfort level significantly drops when it comes to actual payment execution. This reluctance mirrors the slow adoption of technologies like Apple Pay, which took over a decade to reach one in four US online adults, despite clear benefits.

Key takeaway

For AI Product Managers developing agentic commerce solutions, recognize that consumer trust, not just convenience, is the primary barrier to payment delegation. You must prioritize building robust control mechanisms, ensuring transparency in agent actions, and establishing clear liability frameworks. Focus initial efforts on product recommendations and cart filling, as consumers are more receptive there, and gradually introduce payment autonomy only for low-risk, routine transactions with explicit user approval.

Key insights

Consumers distrust AI agents for autonomous payments, prioritizing control and accountability over convenience.

Principles

• Trust is paramount for AI payment delegation.
• Convenience alone won't drive AI agent adoption.
• Accountability for AI actions is expected from platforms.

In practice

• Implement clear spending limits and approval steps.
• Provide transparency on agent actions and decisions.
• Offer robust customer support for AI agent issues.

Topics

• AI Agents
• Autonomous Payments
• Consumer Trust
• Conversational Commerce
• Digital Payments
• Payment Security

Best for: Product Manager, Entrepreneur, AI Product Manager, Consultant, Director of AI/ML

Related on AIssential

• Accenture: Consumers show growing trust in AI shopping agents — Consumers increasingly trust AI agents for shopping tasks, even over close personal relationships.
• ACI Worldwide: How AI is Enhancing Payments Infrastructure — Agentic commerce, where AI acts as buyer and adviser, demands verifiable permission, persistent identity, and transaction evidence.
• The Five Levels of Agentic Commerce — Agentic commerce's growth hinges on consumer trust, not just technological capability.
• Agentic Payments In B2C Commerce: Where We Are Now — Agentic payments are evolving rapidly, driven by protocol competition and the emergence of agent-to-agent transaction capabilities.
• The Agentic Commerce Revolution — Agentic AI unbundles traditional commerce, necessitating new trust protocols for autonomous transactions.
• New Agentic Payment Abilities and Features Explored — The internet's economic infrastructure is evolving with AI agents requiring new programmatic payment protocols and security measures.

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Featured Blogs - Forrester.