Delegation with Limits: What Merchants Want from Agentic Commerce

# What this is about

# Why merchants are cautious Merchants are not rejecting agentic commerce outright. They recognize consumers already use AI for product discovery and price comparison, and many expect shoppers to arrive with personal shopping agents. But merchants do not want to take on extra payment risk or broaden PCI compliance unless systems provide clear protections. The immediate merchant priority is being prepared for agent-driven traffic without changing core risk exposure.

# Core unresolved questions

• Agent ownership: Is the agent acting for the consumer, the merchant, or the AI vendor? Ownership determines responsibility for outcomes and fraud exposure.
• Transaction settlement and standards: Merchants want clarity on how agent-initiated transactions settle and which industry standards will govern these interactions.
• Fraud and security: Agents introduce new attack surfaces. Merchants worry about manipulation of agents or misuse that could harm consumers or merchants.

# What consumers currently prefer Nuvei research cited in the piece shows limited appetite for fully automated purchases: only around 1% of respondents asked for full autonomy, and 56% said they would never allow an AI to spend without explicit approval. That suggests merchants can expect incremental adoption driven by trust features rather than instant autonomy.

# Trust is the gating factor The article places volume growth squarely behind trust. Historical analogies are used: early e-commerce faced similar trust hurdles (for example, reluctance to put card numbers online in the 1990s). Merchants want "trust trails" and approval controls that make delegation auditable and reversible before they accept higher levels of automation.

# Where agentic commerce may take hold first The discussion highlights several categories likely to adopt agentic payments earlier: travel, B2B transactions, and commodity purchases. Those verticals already include defined workflows, approval rules, and relationships that map more naturally to agentic behaviors.

# Immediate merchant actions Merchants and payment providers are already preparing: updating architecture decisions, considering standards, and evaluating where agent ownership and liability will sit. Practical steps include tightening product and transaction metadata, defining approval workflows, and evaluating how to authenticate buying agents versus malicious bots.

# Bottom line Agentic commerce is advancing but still early. Merchants want preparation and clarity rather than rushed adoption. Acceptance will hinge on concrete trust mechanisms, clear assignment of agent responsibility, and scalable standards for settling and securing agent-initiated transactions.