Agentic Commerce: 63% of Consumers Will Trade Brand Loyalty for AI-Driven Savings

A new survey from Spreedly reveals a significant shift in consumer behavior as AI shopping assistants move from discovery to checkout. With 63% of U.S. adults willing to let AI choose brands in exchange for savings, fintechs and merchants must prepare for a landscape where brand loyalty is secondary to algorithmic price optimization and automated decision-making.

What was announced

The "State of Checkout 2026" report, based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by Talker Research, highlights a growing openness to AI-driven commerce. While brand loyalty has traditionally been a cornerstone of retail, 34% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennials are now willing to abandon specific brands if an AI assistant can consistently find better products at lower prices. This sentiment is even stronger among parents of young children, with 60% of those with children under five willing to let AI select brands to achieve a 20% cost reduction.

The research also signals a generational shift in information gathering. While Google Search remains the overall leader for product research at 25%, Gen Z has pivoted sharply toward generative AI. Among this demographic, 31% trust ChatGPT most for product research, dwarfing the 12% who prefer Google. ChatGPT also outperformed traditional sources like online reviews, retailer websites, and recommendations from friends and family for this age group.

However, consumers remain cautious regarding the final transaction. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents refuse to allow AI to spend money without explicit approval, and 58% would not grant an AI assistant direct access to payment information, even for a guaranteed lowest price. Concerns regarding fraud (52%), lack of trust in AI developers (45%), and the risk of overspending (40%) remain significant barriers to fully autonomous commerce. When things go wrong, 41% of consumers would hold the AI company responsible, compared to just 13% for the retailer and 6% for the payment provider.

"Consumers may increasingly rely on an agent to decide which brand wins the purchase, but they still expect control when money moves. That changes the transaction environment for merchants."

Justin Benson, CEO of Spreedly.

The companies involved

Spreedly is a central player in the payments orchestration space, providing a platform that allows merchants and platforms to connect to multiple payment services through a single API. Based in the United States, the company focuses on helping businesses optimize their payment stacks, improve authorization rates, and maintain control over their payment data. By acting as a neutral layer between merchants and various payment gateways, Spreedly enables its clients to scale globally without being locked into a single provider.

The company has established itself as a thought leader in the evolution of the checkout experience, particularly as the industry moves toward more complex, multi-channel environments. Its role in the market involves managing the technical complexities of payment routing and security, which is increasingly relevant as new technologies like AI shopping agents begin to interface with traditional payment rails. Spreedly’s focus on merchant control and payment flexibility positions it at the intersection of consumer-facing AI innovation and the backend financial infrastructure required to settle those transactions securely.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed Spreedly’s efforts to modernize the payment landscape. In July 2026, the company launched a standalone payment vault designed to give merchants greater autonomy over their payment credentials. This move aligned with broader industry trends toward payment orchestration and merchant-led data management.

The challenges of the modern checkout were further highlighted in a 2025 report where one in four companies reported losing more than $1 million annually due to checkout friction. Additionally, the rise of AI in this sector was a key theme at recent industry events, such as the EBANX Payments Summit, where AI-powered e-commerce and local payment methods were identified as the primary drivers of future growth. FF News also noted how alternative payment methods, such as Brazil’s Pix system, are reshaping merchant revenue strategies globally.

What this means

The shift toward AI-mediated commerce represents a fundamental threat to traditional brand marketing. If algorithms, rather than humans, are the primary decision-makers, the "top of the funnel" moves from emotional resonance to technical optimization. This puts immense pressure on merchants to ensure their product data is AI-readable and their pricing is dynamically competitive. Furthermore, the reluctance of consumers to grant AI autonomous spending power suggests a "trust gap" that the fintech sector must bridge. Until payment providers can offer ironclad fraud protection and liability guarantees for AI-initiated transactions, the vision of truly frictionless, autonomous commerce will remain stalled at the final click.