What Is Agentic Commerce? A Guide for Food Retailers
What is agentic commerce, and why is it suddenly on every food retailer's radar? In short, it is shopping carried out by AI agents that discover, decide and transact on a customer's behalf, rather than a person browsing a site. This guide gives you a clear definition, contrasts agentic commerce with traditional e-commerce, explains why it became real in 2025, and sets out what changes for your team and how to prepare. Think of it as the pillar reference for getting your business agent-ready.
Defining agentic commerce
Agentic commerce is commerce carried out by AI agents that discover, decide and transact on a shopper's behalf. Instead of a person searching, comparing and checking out, they delegate the task to an AI assistant, which interprets their intent, finds suitable products and completes the purchase within agreed limits.
The shopper still sets the goal, the budget and the preferences, but the legwork shifts to the agent. In practice that might mean asking an assistant to plan a week of dinners and order the ingredients, with the agent handling selection, basket-building and payment. It is a meaningful change in who, or what, actually does the shopping, and that change is what every other shift in this guide flows from.
How it differs from e-commerce
Agentic commerce differs from e-commerce in one fundamental way: delegation. Traditional e-commerce still relies on a human navigating a website or app, browsing categories, reading reviews and clicking buy. The retailer optimises for that human journey, from homepage to checkout, and competes for attention and clicks.
In agentic commerce, the customer hands the task to an AI agent, so the agent becomes the one evaluating options and transacting. That reframes the goal for retailers: instead of winning attention on a webpage, you need your products and information to be readable, comparable and purchasable by machines. Visibility moves from the storefront to whatever the agent can access and trust, which is a very different thing to optimise for.
Why now
Agentic commerce matters now because 2025 was the year the underlying standards and payment rails matured. OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol went live in ChatGPT in September 2025, and Google announced its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) on 16 September 2025. The card networks moved in parallel, with Visa launching Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard launching Agent Pay.
Demand arrived alongside the infrastructure. AI agents influenced roughly $67 billion of global Cyber Week 2025 sales, around 20% of orders. When both the plumbing and the consumer behaviour appear in the same year, a trend stops being theoretical, which is precisely why this is the moment for retailers to pay attention rather than wait.
What changes for food retailers and brands
For food retailers and brands, agentic commerce changes four things. First, visibility moves inside AI assistants: if an agent cannot find or understand your products, it cannot recommend them. Second, structured product and recipe data becomes essential, because agents act on machine-readable information, and in food a single recipe can unlock a whole basket.
Third, loyalty and convenience become a new battleground, since the agent, not the shopper, may decide which retailer fulfils an order based on availability, price and reliability. Fourth, first-party data grows in value as a way to personalise and retain customers when the traditional storefront recedes. In short, the competition shifts from the shelf and the homepage to the agent's shortlist, and getting onto that list becomes the new priority.
How to get started
Getting started is less daunting than it sounds. Begin by being present where agents shop, then make your catalogue and recipes machine-shoppable so agents can read, compare and buy your products reliably. From there, you can layer on loyalty and first-party data strategies suited to agent-led journeys.
Remy is the food-commerce enablement layer for exactly this. It turns recipe inspiration into shoppable baskets and is AI-native via MCP inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Partner outcomes include up to +15% average order value (up to 163% in some cases), +28% wallet share and a 26% reduction in cost-per-serving, alongside less household food waste. Remy deploys in weeks across four integration models, uses success-based pricing, and keeps data ownership with you.
Talk to RemyAgentic commerce is no longer a forecast; the standards, the payments and the shopper behaviour all arrived together in 2025. For food retailers and brands, the question is not whether AI agents will shop on customers' behalf, but whether your products will be ready when they do. Making your catalogue and recipes agent-ready is the practical first step, and it is exactly what Remy is built to enable.
Frequently asked questions
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is commerce carried out by AI agents that discover, decide and transact on a shopper's behalf. The customer sets goals, budgets and preferences, and the agent interprets that intent, finds suitable products and completes the purchase, rather than the person browsing a website manually.
How is agentic commerce different from e-commerce?
The key difference is delegation. E-commerce relies on a human browsing and checking out on a site. In agentic commerce, the shopper delegates to an AI agent, so retailers must make their products readable and purchasable by machines rather than only optimising a human journey.
Why does agentic commerce matter for retailers?
Because discovery and checkout increasingly happen inside AI assistants. AI agents influenced roughly $67 billion of Cyber Week 2025 sales, about 20% of orders, so retailers whose data agents can read and buy will win recommendations that competitors miss.
How do I prepare my business for AI shopping agents?
Make your catalogue and recipe data structured and machine-shoppable, then ensure you are present where agents shop. Platforms like Remy connect food catalogues to AI surfaces via MCP in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, and can deploy in weeks across four integration models.
Is agentic commerce happening yet?
Yes. In 2025 the standards and rails matured, with ACP live in ChatGPT, Google's AP2 announced, and Visa and Mastercard launching agentic payment tools. AI agents already influenced around $67 billion of Cyber Week 2025 sales, so it is real today.