AI shopping agents are coming, but most people don't trust them with payments yet

AI shopping assistants that can pay for things on your behalf are being built fast, but most shoppers are not ready to hand over the wallet. At Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas, American Express shared survey results showing that people like AI help with research far more than AI help with buying.

What the survey found

Margaret Ryan of Amex Digital Labs said 59% of US consumers are comfortable using AI for product research and recommendations. Only 36% are comfortable with an AI agent completing a transaction for them. In her words, when the stakes are higher, there is more hesitation.

Nearly 75% of consumers also said shopping with a preferred merchant still matters to them, even when AI does the shopping.

Why brands are watching

Ryan said AI will increasingly decide which brands show up and are presented back to the customer. If an assistant narrows your choices before you see them, that shapes what you buy. Walmart's Trent Addington said the goal is not to take people out of shopping. He described it as using technology behind the scenes to make shopping simpler.

What the industry is building

Google's Lisa Yokoyama pointed to two shared standards, the Agentic Payments Protocol from September 2025 and the Universal Commerce Protocol from January 2026. She said checkout flows built on them now run through popular US retailers, using Google Pay.

• Amex released a framework called Intent Intelligence earlier this month, so card issuers can see a customer's approved purchase intent before an agent completes a sale.
• Coinbase's x402 lets AI agents pay directly over the internet, including small payments for data, content and computing.
• Amazon Web Services launched AgentCore Payments in May.

What is still unproven

Coinbase's Alec Lovett admitted that x402 volumes are still very small compared with payments overall, though he said early uses are starting to appear. Addington said early adopters may give agents a lot of freedom, but the average person will not give them control until they earn that trust.

What to do

If you try an AI shopping assistant, check what it is allowed to do before it can spend. Research and suggestions are one thing. Permission to pay is another. Keep that setting off until you trust the tool.