If the past 12 months have taught us
anything, it’s that things move fast in the world of artificial intelligence
(AI). So, it was really only a matter of time before shopping made it onto the
agenda.
Generative AI continues to impact the
travel industry across the board, from search and marketing to trip planning and pricing. The next logical
step is the business of actually buying things.
Step forward agentic commerce, which has
been thrust into the spotlight following almost simultaneously timed
announcements from three of the world’s biggest payment companies—Visa, Mastercard and PayPal—in addition to Google, which recently added “AI Mode” to its shopping experience.
Travel experts predict these could pave the
way for an “explosion” in the number of booking channels available for
consumers—and even more frictionless purchase experiences.
What
is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce refers to autonomous AI
agents that complete purchases on behalf of individuals or businesses to complete, without
requiring direct human intervention.
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At its annual I/O conference
last month, Google revealed its agentic checkout is coming soon—allowing products to be purchased on the customer’s behalf via Google Pay.
It also features price-tracking, to let users “act quickly to make a purchase when the price is right for you,” Google said.
Many observers suggested that this spells
the end of the traditional checkout page. One outcome is that online travel
agencies (OTAs) could gradually fade into irrelevance, with the
concept of “end consumer marketing,” as we know it, largely
disappearing, Mario Gavira, vice president of growth and brand at Kiwi.com, argued.
The
payment tipping point
To enable these agents to automatically
complete purchases, payment companies have come out with a raft of new
protocols and frameworks.
At the end of April, Mastercard unveiled Agent Pay, Visa launched Intelligent Commerce and Paypal came out with
its PayPal Agent Toolkit. Each is collaborating
with AI platforms and technology companies like IBM, Microsoft, Perplexity and
others as they look to scale agentic commerce.
In the same month, ChatGPT rolled out “product discovery”—which
is really shopping—meaning its search results will soon include direct links to
buy products.
“We’re entering a new phase of digital
commerce where intelligent software agents do more than search or respond to
our queries—they act on our behalf,” said Sherri Haymond, co-president of global
partnerships at Mastercard.
However, it remains more of a concept for
now, according to Haymond.
“Agentic
commerce is still emerging, yet we expect it to unlock entirely new commerce
opportunities for the travel industry,” she said.
Closing the gap
The groundwork is
being done. The question is: How prepared is the travel sector?
“The industry is partially ready, but
there’s a significant gap between what’s technically possible and what’s widely
adopted. Sabre is working to close that gap,” said Patricio Boccardo, managing
director, Sabre
Direct Pay. He said Sabre is working to enable agents to not only browse
and recommend but also transact and manage payments with precision and
transparency.
The industry is partially ready, but there’s a significant gap between what’s technically possible and what’s widely adopted.
Patricio Boccardo, Sabre Direct Pay
Of course, automated purchases are not
technically that new.
“Some of these solutions exist already but
in a different way,” noted Spencer Hanlon, chief operating officer at
cross-border payment specialist Nium. At a basic level, he likened it to a
Starbucks card, which can be automatically reloaded with funds.
“In this case, what Mastercard and Visa are
doing is putting the technology and the tokenization in so that these AI agents
can do a similar sort of frictionless purchasing. We have come a long way with
biometrics and saved passwords, but the future is that we don't pull the phone
out at all, and we don't touch anything. We start to use voice and other
interfaces.”
We’re already speaking to Alexa devices, but Hanlon also
suggested a platform like Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses could soon be relevant
to agentic commerce. For example, agentic shopping could be applied to
something as simple as buying a train ticket at the station barrier.
“I'm
interfacing with the AI using other interfaces, eyes, maybe blinking, asking it
to let me in. This is just another way for people to buy things,” he said.
Interestingly, Google also revealed a Gemini update for its glasses and headsets
during the I/O conference.
‘Explosion
of channels’
“Ultimately, what the travel industry is
going to see is just an explosion of new booking channels,” said James Lemon,
hospitality, travel and leisure global lead at Stripe.
“And so, travel firms just need to get ready for that, wherever they play in
the chain today.”
Stripe itself launched what it claims is
the world’s first AI foundation model for payments
at its annual Sessions event in May.
Agentic commerce also opens up new ways to
book beyond AI agents, according to Lemon. He referenced Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s session at the event,
where he talked about messenger commerce.
“His prediction is actually, if you're
running everything on an AI, why would you not just converse with hotels,
travel agents, airlines on WhatsApp and just do everything you need to do there?”
Lemon said.
Consumer
trust and risks
As with all new concepts, consumers will
need to be convinced. Ultimately, they need to be reassured their personal AI
assistant won’t go rogue and end up spending thousands of dollars on an
over-water villa in the Maldives—when all they really wanted was a budget city
break.
“If you’re going to be sending an agentic
AI around the internet, it needs to have your preferred ways to pay, it will
need to have a digital ID and then it will need to have these permissions.
Because, effectively, you're going to have two AIs talking to each other,” said
Stripe’s Lemon. “The opportunity for fraud is going to be absolutely massive.”
Sabre’s Boccardo also pointed out that
credit cards still dominate in travel, despite high fees, fraud risk and
delays.
Agentic transactions will be conducted at millions of merchants of all sizes, supporting online commerce today. This inclusivity ensures that both large and small enterprises can leverage the technology for enhanced transactions and sales.
Sherri Haymond, Mastercard
“Many travel suppliers still operate legacy
systems that can’t yet handle real-time, agent-led payment flows,” he said.
“The industry knows change is coming—78% of travel tech firms say mobile and
alternative payments are now a strategic priority—but operational maturity
takes time.”
And once personal assistants do prove their
worth, the travel industry will need to ensure compatibility with as many of
them as possible. Consumers will likely show loyalty to specific AI agents, as
they already appear to do with certain generative AI platforms. Will they
prefer to search and book their vacation with Perplexity, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or
others?
Mastercard’s Haymond is optimistic, however,
and said agentic shopping experience will have a democratizing effect,
impacting the entire industry and not necessarily favoring tech savvy OTAs.
“Smaller companies will also benefit,” she
said. “Agentic transactions will be conducted at millions of merchants of all
sizes, supporting online commerce today. This inclusivity ensures that both
large and small enterprises can leverage the technology for enhanced
transactions and sales.”
As Amadeus points out in its Business Travel Trends 2025 report, generative
AI has for the past two years been all about offering supportive assistance;
the next stage will be defined by proactive functionality. Now, the travel
ecosystem needs to adapt.
“This stuff is going to come way, way
quicker than we think,” Lemon said.