As shoppers rapidly adopt AI in their browsing and buying journeys, AI agents could be responsible for an estimated £29billion of predicted online spending by as soon as 2030, the latest research by Worldpay has revealed.

Its research of over 8,000 global shoppers, including 2,000 from the UK, showed that consumers expect 7% of their retail purchases to be conducted by AI bots within the next five years, equating to a projected £29.2billion of ecommerce spend.

Smart bots curate online spending

Already one in three (31%) UK shoppers are happy for smart bots to browse on their behalf, rising to almost half (45%) of younger shoppers aged 18-34.

Product discovery and price comparison are among the top motivators for customers using AI assistants within their shopping experiences; 61% want AI agents to help balance price and quality, while 60% rely on bots to hunt down the lowest prices. 

Meanwhile, 43% want agentic AI to deliver greater levels of personalisation, acting as a personal shopper and picking products based on their unique tastes and preferences.

A further third (32%) want digital assistants to favour their trusted brands, while others want it to choose products that are ethically or sustainably sourced (23%).

A question of control

However, many shoppers remain cautious of how much control their handover to AI when making purchases.

Despite leveraging AI to enhance product discovery and selection, six in ten (60%) still want to review every purchase before the transaction is completed, and a similar number (58%) want to be able to override AI decision-making, by being able to cancel an order within 24 hours if needed.

Just 6% would trust an AI assistant to buy automatically without checking in first, indicating that shoppers still want the final say before money leaves their account.