How AI Is Fundamentally Changing Online Shopping
Imagine your phone buzzes at 6 a.m. It’s ChatGPT suggesting, “I see you’re traveling to New York this week. Based on your preferences, I’ve found three restaurants near your hotel. Would you like me to make a reservation?”
You never asked for this. The AI simply knew your plans by scanning your calendar and email and decided to be helpful. Later, you casually mention to the chatbot that you need flowers for your wife’s birthday. Within seconds, beautiful arrangements appear in the chat. You tap one, hit “Buy now,” and the order is complete.
This isn't a futuristic scenario. On September 29, 2025, OpenAI and payment processor Stripe launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol. This technology enables instant purchases from Etsy directly within ChatGPT conversations. Access is also planned for over a million Shopify merchants, from major brands to small businesses.
As marketing researchers who study how AI influences consumer behavior, we believe we are witnessing the biggest shift in shopping since the smartphone. And most people have no idea it’s happening.
From Searching to Being Served
For the last thirty years, the internet has operated on a simple model: you want something, you search for it, you compare options, and then you decide to buy. You have always been in control.
That era is coming to an end.
AI shopping assistants are evolving through three distinct phases:
- On-Demand AI: You ask ChatGPT a question, and it provides an answer. This is where most users are today.
- Ambient AI: The AI begins to suggest things before you even ask. By monitoring your calendar and emails, ChatGPT can offer proactive recommendations.
- Autopilot AI: Soon, the AI will make purchases on your behalf with minimal input. A simple command like, “Order flowers for my anniversary next week,” will be enough for ChatGPT to check your calendar, recall preferences, process the payment, and confirm delivery.
With each new phase, convenience increases, but your direct control diminishes.
The Hidden Persuasion of AI Shopping
An AI’s responses create what researchers term an “advice illusion.” When ChatGPT suggests three hotels, they don't feel like advertisements; they feel like trusted recommendations from a knowledgeable friend. However, you have no way of knowing if those hotels paid for their placement or if better, unlisted options exist.
Most people have learned to recognize and dismiss traditional advertising. AI recommendations, on the other hand, feel objective even when they are not. With one-tap purchasing, the entire process is so seamless that you might not even pause to consider other options.
OpenAI is not alone in this venture. Google recently announced its competing protocol, AP2. Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are all developing similar systems. The winner of this race will be positioned to control how billions of people shop, potentially capturing a share of trillions of dollars in transactions.
The Real Cost of AI Convenience
This new level of convenience comes with significant costs that most people haven't considered.
- Privacy: For an AI to suggest restaurants, it needs to read your calendar and emails. To buy flowers, it needs your purchase history. People will be trading total surveillance for convenience.
- Choice: Currently, a search yields numerous options. With an AI intermediary, you may only see the three choices it selects for you. Entire businesses could become invisible if the AI decides to ignore them.
- Power of Comparing: The friction that once made you pause and compare prices disappears when ChatGPT suggests products with a one-tap checkout.
This Future is Arriving Faster Than You Think
By September 2025, ChatGPT had already reached 800 million weekly users, growing four times faster than social media platforms. Major retailers began adopting OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol almost immediately after its launch.
History shows that people consistently underestimate how quickly they adapt to convenient technologies. It wasn't long ago that getting into a stranger’s car was unthinkable, yet Uber now has 150 million users.
Convenience always wins. The question isn’t if AI shopping will become mainstream, but whether people will retain any real control over what they buy and why.
How to Reclaim Your Power as a Consumer
The open internet gave people a world of information and choice. The AI revolution could take that away, not by force, but by making it so easy to let an algorithm decide that we forget how to choose for ourselves. In this new world, buying things could become as thoughtless as sending a text.
Furthermore, a single company could become the gatekeeper for all digital commerce, creating a potential monopoly far beyond Amazon's current dominance. A vigorous public conversation is needed to decide if this is the future we want.
Here are some steps you can take:
- Question AI Suggestions: When ChatGPT recommends products, remember that you are seeing a curated list, not all available options. Before you one-tap purchase, pause and ask yourself if you would buy it after comparing prices on five different websites.
- Review Your Privacy Settings: Understand exactly what personal data you are trading for convenience.
- Start a Conversation: This shift to AI shopping is happening largely without public debate. The time to discuss acceptable limits is now, before it becomes the unquestioned norm.
The Invisible Price of One-Tap Buying
The AI will learn what you want, perhaps even before you do. Every time you tap “Buy now,” you are training it—teaching it your habits, your weaknesses, and the times of day you are most likely to impulse buy.
This isn't a call to reject technology but to recognize the trade-offs. Every convenience has a cost, and every tap is a data point. The companies building these systems are betting you won’t notice the true price you're paying. And in most cases, they're probably right.
