Power your agentic AI future with PayPal: article and webinar

What is agentic commerce?

In agentic commerce, AI models called agents can act on behalf of users. These agents gather information on available products in response to a user request. The AI shopping assistant then shows the user items that fit with their prompt, considering previous purchases and preferences.

It’s a big change. But it’s already happening. And with PayPal, your business can be part of building the future of digital commerce.

How agentic AI is reshaping e-commerce

Right now, most shoppers find products by searching for items themselves. And they’re overwhelmed with options: different marketplaces, payment options, and return policies make it hard to find the best choice.

Agentic AI cuts through the noise to find exactly what the user is looking for. It doesn’t browse like a person. Instead, it synthesizes information about hundreds of products and creates a shortlist for the customer. Once they’re ready to purchase, they can confirm their identity and check out with saved shipping and payment information. With agentic commerce, AI supports every step in the shopper journey.

What matters in an agentic world

In a world where intelligent agents do the browsing, shopper acquisition strategies have to change. The factors that will become increasingly important as agentic commerce grows are data, identity, and trust.

Data

Data is the backbone of AI effectiveness. Beyond just shopper preferences.

When an agent looks for products, it needs to be able to evaluate how well the product fits with a shopper’s request. For example, consider someone looking for a white cotton t-shirt. The agent evaluating products might find a white t-shirt, but not have information about the material. That makes it a lower-priority item than a white t-shirt that has materials listed.

Data requirements extend to your business’s policies, too. Maybe a shopper needs an order to arrive by next week. Maybe they’re worried about being able to return an item. An agent can take that into account. If your business’s policies aren’t listed, that might mean a missed sale.

PayPal can help. Our two-sided network of shoppers and merchants gives us insights into purchasing habits and trends. And with 436 million active accounts globally, we have the data to back up AI-powered insights.²

Identity

The best AI agents use as much information as possible to make decisions. For agentic commerce, that means bringing together data about shoppers’ past purchases to inform future suggestions. It’s personalization, built right into how they shop.

But collecting that data in the first place is difficult. Between guest checkout and multi-channel sales, it’s hard to unify a shopper’s info even within a single business.

Get a head start with PayPal. PayPal Open, our unified omnichannel solution, already integrates in-person and online payments with a centralized vault. That means unified shopper profiles that help tailor personalized recommendations.

Trust

When online payments first launched, they faced skepticism. Now, so does agentic AI.

To feel comfortable trying this new way of shopping, customers need to know the tools they are using have been built with security in mind. This is especially important as personalized shopping continues to improve. Businesses need to work with platforms customers can trust.

As the #1 business in Infegy’s Most Trusted Brand Rankings, PayPal has the established reputation to inspire confidence.³ And 76% of online shoppers surveyed in 2023 already trusted PayPal to keep their financial information secure.⁴

We have experience leading the charge on new technologies. In the early days of online shopping, PayPal was a digital wallet shoppers recognized and have come to rely on. We bring the same level of customer care and protection to agentic commerce.

How PayPal can help

We’re not waiting for agentic commerce to happen. We’re building it with an agentic commerce toolkit that makes it easier for businesses to give the right information to agents. We’ve already laid the groundwork with:

• Our 2-sided network connecting 436 million active consumer and merchant accounts, providing valuable data insights that can inform agent decision-making

• Unified omnichannel profiles that give us the deep knowledge needed for better recommendations

Now, we’re building for agentic commerce with capabilities like:

• Order management system integration that allows agent-created orders to register in your existing systems instantly, simplifying selling at scale.

• Our Model Context Protocol that means it only takes a few lines of code for merchants to integrate agentic capabilities. This increases accessibility for small- and medium-sized businesses and reduces your time to market.

• Identity verification with one-time passwords at checkout that helps protect against fraudulent purchases.

Get a head start on agentic commerce, with PayPal. Watch the webinar to learn more.