Alter Agents CEO Rebecca Brooks recently published a new Forbes article exploring a fast-emerging idea in retail: “agentic commerce,” where AI agents handle shopping on our behalf for everything from groceries to gifts. It’s a future that promises convenience, but Rebecca argues that it risks overlooking something essential about why people shop in the first place.

In the article, Rebecca draws on both personal experience and our ongoing research to highlight the tension at the center of AI-driven purchasing. Even as technology gets more sophisticated, consumers are tightening their grip on choice and control. Our 2025 Consumer Sentiment Study shows that people are rethinking their relationship with spending, not because they want fewer things, but because financial control delivers emotional security in a time of rising costs and instability.

That emotional dimension is where today’s visions of agentic commerce fall short. Rebecca notes that while AI can streamline transactions, it can’t replicate the small human moments that make shopping meaningful: discovery, autonomy, even nostalgia. And when budgets tighten, automation doesn’t always fit real-world behavior. People reevaluate subscriptions, change brands, make exceptions for small treats or adjust spending in ways an algorithm can’t intuit.

Rebecca points out that effective personalization requires empathy, not just prediction. Shoppers want brands that understand their values and give them room to choose, not systems that automate that choice away. The long arc of consumer behavior supports this: decades of expanding options have trained people to expect more freedom, not less. 

Instead of replacing the emotional experience of shopping, Rebecca argues that AI’s best role is to support it, helping track loyalty rewards, flag better deals or pause recurring purchases when spending dips. The most successful innovations will be the ones that keep the shopper firmly in control.

You can read Rebecca’s full article on Forbes for a deeper look at how automation, emotion and consumer agency intersect and what brands should keep in mind as AI transforms the shopping experience. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2025/11/19/when-ai-starts-shopping-for-us-whos-really-in-control/