Agentic AI is changing how consumers discover and buy products, but brand loyalty remains resilient. For brands, the challenge is ensuring emotional relevance, trust and visibility across both human-led and AI-assisted shopping journeys.
Agentic AI is moving from marketing buzzword to commercial reality.
Technologies that can act on consumers’ behalf are being framed as a major shift in the path to purchase, raising the possibility that product discovery, comparison and purchase decision-making could be completely outsourced to AI assistants on a regular basis. Some observers have warned that this could weaken brand loyalty as we know it or even destabilize the wider consumer economy.
Until now, uptake of auto-replenishment and fully automated purchase solutions for everyday staples has remained limited, partly because many consumers are reluctant to surrender agency. But as agentic AI grows in reach and value, brands need to understand where purchase influence is shifting, where consumers still value brand choice, and how to protect loyalty in a more automated shopping journey.
At Foresight Factory, we see this as one of the defining emerging consumer trends shaping the future of commerce, loyalty and AI-assisted shopping.
Highlights
- Agentic AI is growing in reach and value, and that’s only going to continue. As of 2024, 29% of consumers globally say they are willing to use an AI assistant to research and make purchasing decisions on their behalf, and we expect that proportion to grow to 47% by 2040 (source: Foresight Factory). The global agentic AI market was valued at $7.29 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $139.19 billion by 2034 (source: Fortune Business Insights).
- Many consumers still want control over AI-assisted shopping. 1 in 4 consumers say they would use AI to research and make purchasing decisions if they could edit the choices, while another 1 in 4 would only use an AI assistant for advice. 1 in 5 say they would not use an AI assistant at all (source: Foresight Factory).
- Brand loyalty still has power. Agreement that “when shopping, there are some brands that I would always be prepared to pay full price for” stood at 66% globally in 2025, peaking at 72% among 25-34s. Agreement that a well-known brand is the best assurance of quality also grew between 2010 and 2025 in all markets surveyed, doubling among Australians from 24% to 50%.
- Loyalty activations have a role to play, but expectations are shifting. Loyalty programs remain an important tool for recruiting and retaining customers. AI can use data to personalize rewards, but transparency and fairness will be essential. Preferential pricing remains important, while exclusive rewards can help brands respond to a world of “trend loyalty”, where younger consumers buy products simply because they are trending on social media.
- Brands should retain faith in the power of brand equity. Consumers still place value on brands, with Gen Z and Gen Alpha proving especially brand-aware. This gives companies room to appeal directly to current and prospective customers through messages that resonate on a human and emotional level, even as AI shopping assistants reshape discovery and choice.
1. Agentic AI is changing the path to purchase
Agentic AI is starting to reshape how consumers in 2026 discover, compare and buy products. While researching products to buy is one of the less common uses for generative AI among consumers out of the uses we ask about in our survey, the proportion doing so globally grew from 10% in 2024 to 17% in 2025, rising to 20% of those aged 25-34 and 21% of those with a household income of over $40,000 a year. And analysis from Adobe found that, in the 2025 US holiday shopping period, traffic to retail sites from generative AI tools grew by almost 700% year on year.
Why is generative engine optimization (GEO) becoming important to brands?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is becoming more important, as shown by a range of commercial activity. In autumn 2025, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout for ChatGPT, which enables users to browse, discover and purchase products without leaving the chat tool’s interface. Built with payments platform Stripe, the feature enables real-time product recommendations, price comparisons and seamless checkout, all without leaving the app. The goal is to reduce friction in online shopping and make product discovery more conversational.
Some brands are partnering with AI agents to ensure they feature prominently in consumers’ options. In September 2025, Chinese payment giant Alipay launched an agentic AI payment service designed to act on behalf of users to manage payments. The service is available to users of the Singaporean coffee chain Luckin Coffee, allowing them to order and pay for beverages via voice commands with an AI agent.
For brands, this marks an important shift in the AI path to purchase. As AI shopping assistants become more embedded in discovery and decision-making, brand visibility will increasingly depend on how well products, propositions and proof points can be understood by both consumers and the AI systems guiding them.
2. Brand loyalty still has emotional power in an AI-assisted shopping world
The rise of agentic AI does not mean consumers are ready to give up on brands. Agreement with the statement “when shopping, there are some brands that I would always be prepared to pay full price for” stood at 66% globally in 2025, peaking at 72% of 25-34s. Agreement also grew in many markets between 2019 and 2025, including from 65% to 72% in the US and from 57% to 74% in Germany. This growth may be in part due to the easing of cost-of-living pressures, which were especially acute in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the need to buy from brands and companies that reflect personal values has remained stable at 3 in 5, rising to 68% of 25-34s. This shows that the power of brands to connect with consumers on an emotional level remains undimmed.
Will AI shopping assistants reduce brand loyalty?
This matters because it challenges the assumption that AI shopping assistants will automatically reduce brand loyalty and drive consumers to buy solely based on price, availability and convenience. On the contrary, many consumers still see brands as markers of quality, identity and trust. Agreement that a well-known brand is the best assurance of quality grew between 2010 and 2025 in all markets surveyed, doubling among Australians from 24% to 50% (source: Foresight Factory).
All of these signals suggest that the importance of brands to consumers remains strong, and if anything is still growing. The task for brands now is to make that value visible across both human-led and AI-assisted shopping journeys.
3. Loyalty programs need to prove their value through meaningful rewards
AI is pushing brands to rethink what loyalty looks like in a more promiscuous, discovery-led market. And while AI can help brands tailor rewards through purchase data, this also raises new risks.
Many consumers are prepared to share data when they receive something meaningful in return and when that data is handled securely. At the same time, concerns around surveillance pricing are growing. An investigation by The Washington Post found that some loyalty programs can end up costing frequent buyers more, not less. This practice has led New York State to introduce a mandate requiring algorithmic pricing to be clearly disclosed.
How should brands rethink loyalty programs in the age of AI?
Our strategic foresight experts are increasingly asked how brands can build deeper, more resilient relationships when consumers have more tools, platforms and recommendations shaping choice. For customer loyalty to strengthen, consumers need to believe that membership gives them a better deal, not a hidden penalty. Preferential pricing will remain important, particularly in everyday categories where value still shapes choice. Exclusive rewards will also matter as younger consumers move between viral products and trending brands. In this context, the future of loyalty will depend on clear value exchange, emotional relevance and trust that holds up even as AI shopping assistants reshape the path to purchase.
At Foresight Factory, we believe loyalty programs remain one tool in brands’ armory in the fight to recruit and retain customers in 2026. Our full Future of Loyalty coverage, available on Collision, our dynamic intelligence platform at the heart of the Foresight Ecosystem, explores how these emerging consumer trends are changing the value exchange between brands and customers.
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