The trust gap between AI agents and shoppers remains fragile, with consumers becoming increasingly unforgiving of AI mistakes, new research from payments tech provider, ACI Worldwide, shows.

Its latest study of 2,000 UK adults revealed that just 19% of consumers trust AI assistants to follow set rules for making every day purchases, compared with 55% who would trust a human expert or adviser.

Seven in ten (69%) say they don’t trust AI, even when it follows rules they set, while six in ten (60%) would stop using an AI agent after just one mistake.

“Consumers are open to AI helping them shop smarter, but only if they remain firmly in control of both the decision making and their money,” said Adriana Lordan, Head of Merchant & Payments Intelligence at ACI Worldwide.

The findings come as merchants, payment providers and tech platforms are increasingly moving towards zero-click retail models, which move AI beyond product discovery and closer to checkout and payment.

While half of shoppers (50%) already trust AI to find the best prices available and 43% have confidence in it follow spending limits, the trust gap widened when it came to autonomous actions and security.

Just 18% of shoppers trust AI to act in their best financial interests, while only 17% trust it to keep their personal and payment data secure.

“This isn’t a capability gap; it’s a trust and confidence gap. If the industry wants adoption, it must prioritise control over capability: explicit approvals, hard spending limits, protected payment details and clear accountability when things go wrong,” Lordan added.