The infrastructure war for agentic commerce is heating up. Shopify declared AI agents must use its checkout systems, not bypass them. This is not about fees. It is about who owns the customer relationship, conversion data, and fraud liability when agents execute purchases. Meanwhile, payment networks across Asia (Mastercard, Visa, DBS) are running agentic commerce pilots. Google partnered with Sea Ltd to build AI shopping tools for Shopee. Unilever committed to Google Cloud for agentic transformation. Wall Street is pricing it in: Morgan Stanley named Amazon a top pick on GenAI momentum, seeing 50% upside from AI shopping. Consumer behavior crossed the threshold: over 70% now use AI to find deals. Retailers are responding. Walmart integrated Google Gemini. Williams-Sonoma tested ads in ChatGPT. Loblaw launched Canada’s first ChatGPT shopping app. The pattern: agentic commerce is moving from prototype to production, and the fight for control over transaction rails has begun.
Top 3 Stories We’re Tracking
Shopify blocks AI agents from bypassing checkout systems
Shopify stated AI agents cannot bypass its checkout systems. This protects revenue from transaction fees and maintains control over customer relationships and transaction data. The move sets a precedent for how platforms will assert control as agentic commerce scales.
Google partners with Sea Ltd to build AI shopping tools for Shopee
Google partnered with Sea Ltd to develop AI shopping tools for Shopee, Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform. This puts Google Cloud and AI capabilities directly into millions of shoppers’ hands and signals Google’s push into regional agentic commerce infrastructure.
Wall Street prices in AI commerce: Amazon named top pick on GenAI momentum
Morgan Stanley named Amazon its top stock pick, citing GenAI momentum and seeing 50% upside from AI shopping capabilities. Analysts view Amazon’s AI commerce potential and AWS infrastructure as major value drivers, signaling Wall Street now prices agentic commerce as core revenue, not experimental.
Trends to Watch
- Platforms asserting control over transaction layers as agentic commerce scales (Shopify blocking agent checkout bypass).
- Payment networks building rails for AI agent transactions (Mastercard, Visa, DBS pilots across Asia Pacific).
- Wall Street pricing AI commerce into valuations (Morgan Stanley, Rothschild changing ratings based on AI readiness).
- Consumer adoption crossing mainstream threshold (70%+ using AI to find deals, 64% for product discovery).
- Major retailers claiming distribution in AI platforms before competitors lock them out (Walmart/Gemini, Williams-Sonoma/ChatGPT, Loblaw/ChatGPT).