Wildfire Systems’ 2026 Consumer Rewards & Behavioral Shopping Trends report highlights a key obstacle to agentic commerce: consumers are increasingly willing to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find products and compare prices, but remain reluctant to let AI systems complete purchases or control payments. Based on a survey of 1,007 U.S. consumers, the report found that 71% now use AI chatbots, while only 5% would trust an AI platform itself to process an AI agent’s payment. The findings put payment authorization, consumer trust and loyalty integration at the center of the next phase of AI-powered commerce.

Agentic Commerce Faces a Payment Trust Problem

AI-powered shopping is gaining traction, but consumers are not yet ready to hand over the final purchase decision to autonomous agents. Wildfire Systems’ latest consumer research suggests that the next challenge for agentic commerce is not product discovery but the payment infrastructure, financial incentives and safeguards needed to make delegated transactions acceptable.

The company’s 2026 Consumer Rewards & Behavioral Shopping Trends report, titled Agentic Commerce’s Wallet Problem, surveyed 1,007 U.S. consumers. It found that 71% use AI chatbots, up from 22% two years earlier. Among AI users, 56% use AI for price comparisons and 44% for finding deals.

However, only 5% said they would trust an AI platform itself to process an agent’s payment, while 41% would trust none of the payment options presented in the survey.

The findings reveal a distinction between using AI to inform a purchase and authorizing software to execute it. Consumers may welcome recommendations from ChatGPT or other conversational assistants while preferring to retain control over checkout, payment credentials and the final transaction.

For payment providers, retailers and fintech companies, this creates an infrastructure challenge: enabling AI agents to transact without weakening the security, transparency and financial benefits consumers expect from established payment methods.

Product Discovery Is Ahead of Autonomous Checkout

The gap between AI-assisted shopping and autonomous purchasing is becoming a defining issue for the emerging agentic commerce market.

Mastercard’s Signals research, cited by Wildfire, found that 85% of consumers were open to using an AI agent to find the best option, but only one in 10 were willing to let an agent complete a purchase autonomously. Although the surveys use different measures, both point to stronger acceptance of AI recommendations than of delegated payment execution.

The industry’s commercial strategies are adapting accordingly. Reuters reported in March 2026 that OpenAI was shifting its shopping strategy toward product discovery and merchant-operated checkout after its initial Instant Checkout approach did not provide the flexibility it wanted for merchants.

That shift illustrates the importance of the transaction boundary. AI platforms can help consumers identify products, compare prices and discover offers without necessarily becoming the merchant’s checkout system or payment processor.

For retailers, retaining control of checkout can preserve existing payment integrations, fraud controls, loyalty programs and customer relationships. For AI providers, the challenge is making the transition from recommendation to purchase seamless enough that users do not abandon the experience.

Small Purchases Could Lead Agentic Commerce Adoption

Wildfire’s survey suggests consumers are more comfortable delegating lower-value, routine purchases than expensive transactions.

According to the report, 29% of respondents were very comfortable allowing an agent to make a purchase costing less than $20. That proportion fell to 6% for purchases of $500 or more. Consumers were also more comfortable delegating purchases of toiletries and household basics than booking airfare or hotels.

This pattern has implications for how agentic commerce products are designed and introduced. Low-cost replenishment purchases may be an easier starting point because they involve familiar products and comparatively limited financial exposure. Higher-value transactions often carry greater consequences if an agent selects the wrong item, misses a condition or executes a purchase without sufficient authorization.

Payment platforms may therefore need configurable spending limits, explicit approval thresholds, merchant restrictions and transaction notifications. Such controls could let consumers delegate routine purchases while retaining approval over larger or less predictable expenses.

These features are potential design responses to the survey findings, not capabilities that Wildfire says its report has implemented.

Loyalty and Cashback Could Help Close the Trust Gap

The report also points to an economic dimension of consumer trust. Among AI users, 56% said economic conditions had increased their interest in using AI to find deals. The figure rose to 78% among households with children under 13. Meanwhile, 45% identified getting better deals as their leading reason for delegating shopping to an AI agent, compared with 37% who prioritized saving time.

Consumers also identified familiar financial benefits as reasons to feel more comfortable with AI-led purchases. Thirty-eight percent cited carrying loyalty rewards through to an AI-driven transaction, while 36% pointed to cashback. Both ranked ahead of an AI platform’s money-back guarantee, at 29%, and fraud protection, at 27%.

These results suggest that agentic commerce is not simply a contest to build smarter shopping assistants. It also depends on whether AI-mediated transactions preserve the economic value consumers already receive through cards, merchant loyalty programs and rewards platforms.

For fintech providers and payment networks, this creates an opportunity to connect agent authorization with existing rewards and payment infrastructure. However, doing so requires accurate offer eligibility, transparent reward calculations and reliable transaction attribution.

Wildfire operates in loyalty and consumer shopping insights, giving it a commercial interest in the role rewards may play in this market. Its findings should therefore be treated as company-sponsored survey research rather than a universal measure of consumer behavior.

Banks Retain a Trust Advantage

When respondents were asked which organizations they would trust to process an AI agent’s payment, banks ranked highest among the named options at 17%. Digital wallets followed at 14%, with credit card networks and major retailers each receiving 12%.

Yet the 41% who trusted none of the options tested is particularly significant. It suggests that familiarity with a financial institution does not automatically translate into confidence in autonomous payment execution.

Banks, card networks, digital wallets and payment processors could each play a role in the emerging ecosystem, but they will need to establish how authorization, accountability and dispute resolution work when an AI agent initiates a transaction.

For GlobalFinTechEdge’s financial technology audience, the central question is whether payment infrastructure can make delegated purchasing as understandable and controllable as conventional checkout. Agentic commerce may expand first through routine, low-value transactions, but broader adoption will depend on consumer confidence in who controls the money, how rewards are preserved and what happens when an agent gets a purchase wrong.

Market Landscape

Agentic commerce is developing at the intersection of AI shopping assistants, digital payments, merchant checkout infrastructure and consumer loyalty technology.

Three trends stand out:

• AI-assisted discovery: Consumers are increasingly using AI to compare products and identify offers, creating opportunities for conversational commerce.
• Payment authorization and control: Autonomous transactions require clear permissions, spending limits, transaction visibility and mechanisms for resolving disputes.
• Loyalty-linked commerce: Cashback, reward points and merchant offers could influence whether consumers adopt AI-mediated purchasing.

Wildfire’s survey suggests that payment trust remains a more substantial barrier than AI-assisted product discovery. The commercial opportunity lies in connecting AI agents to established payment infrastructure without removing consumer control.

The findings are directional rather than definitive: the survey covers 1,007 U.S. consumers, and the company has a commercial interest in loyalty and consumer shopping technology. Adoption rates and preferences may differ across markets, transaction types and customer groups.

Top Insights

• Wildfire Systems reports that 71% of surveyed U.S. consumers use AI chatbots, but only 5% trust an AI platform itself to process an agent’s payment.
• Consumers are more comfortable delegating purchases below $20 than transactions costing $500 or more, suggesting a gradual path toward autonomous checkout.
• Loyalty rewards and cashback ranked above several other incentives for increasing comfort with AI-driven purchases, highlighting the role of payment-linked financial value.
• Banks ranked ahead of digital wallets and card networks among named payment options, although 41% of respondents trusted none of the options tested.
• The next phase of agentic commerce will depend on authorization, transaction transparency, merchant checkout integration and consumer confidence, not just AI recommendation quality.

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