Privacy worries could slow AI shopping assistants that buy for you

A new question is hanging over AI shopping assistants: will people trust them with their personal data? Inside Retail Asia asks whether privacy concerns could hold back the rise of what the industry calls agentic commerce. The answer is not yet clear.

What it is

Agentic commerce means an AI tool that shops and pays on your behalf. Instead of searching, comparing and checking out yourself, you hand the job to software. It acts for you and completes the purchase.

Why privacy comes into it

To do that job, such a tool may need a lot of information about you. That can include your habits, your addresses and your payment details. Handing all of that to one tool is a big step for many shoppers, and it is the core of the worry.

What is not known yet

The material available for this story is thin. It does not name specific products or companies, and it gives no survey results or figures on how many shoppers are uneasy. It also does not say what rules apply or how any tool stores data. The open question is whether privacy worries will keep shoppers from trusting these tools.

What to do

Before you let any AI tool shop for you, check what personal and payment data it can see and store. Look at what it asks for up front, and ask whether it really needs each item to do the job.