Agentic shopping is all the rage these days… at least in tech-world chatter. But like many emerging and buzzy technologies, the question is whether agentic shopping’s real-world traction is proportionate to its airtime in tech & media circles. Signals have emerged to suggest that it is not.
Before examining the evidence, what are we talking about? Agentic shopping involves agents that shop autonomously. Driven by prompts, they find and purchase products. For agents like Muse, the appeal lies in saving time and elevating capabilities – such as capturing limited-window deals or finding rare items.
So what are the latest signals? DoorDash reported on its Q3 earnings call that it has seen hundreds of food orders come in from AI agents such as Muse. That’s a lifetime figure, which pales in comparison to DoorDash’s millions of daily orders. On that relative scale, agentic ordering can be seen as insubstantial.
“I would say that this is something that is still a very dynamic area,” said DoorDash CEO Tony Xu during the Q&A portion of the analyst call. “And my take on all things technology is you never want to fight gravity. But at the same time, you don’t want to be delusional. What I mean by that is if you look at where AI agents are today, we’re seeing maybe several hundred orders in total.”
Telling Signal
This is a noteworthy signal that counterbalances all the agentic shopping fervor in today’s AI-fueled tech and media culture. It also follows a historical pattern where media channels – reporters, influencers, podcasters, etc. – are more tuned in to tech culture than to the reality of everyday consumers.
But in fairness, DoorDash’s revelation is just one signal that isn’t necessarily representative of the agentic commerce universe. For one, agentic food ordering doesn’t offer the same advantages as with hard goods. The latter benefits from factors noted above, such finding rare or limited-window items.
Food ordering by comparison is a commoditized function that happens routinely three times per day. Furthermore, its manual processes are fast and simple enough to not really stick out as a pain point that’s in need of fixing. There’s simply less to be gained in deploying agents to order your lunch.
That said, DoorDash’s reporting could be a telling signal that agentic shopping is more hype than reality. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have the potential that’s being amped up in the tech press and culture. But as of this moment, its real-world usage from everyday consumers isn’t as great as its buzz.
Early-Mover Play
DoorDash’s reality check aside, what positive moves are coming out of the agentic shopping realm? There’s ample momentum, even if it’s not yet matched by consumer demand. Like many things, the supply side wants to stimulate or create demand, and then be there to capture it.
That so far includes standouts like Muse. Competing with Grok Bot and Anthropic’s Duet. Muse’s claim to fame is that it’s simple to use, built around a friendly persona and chat interface. This has attracted the masses, to the tune of 10 million downloads in the app’s first 40 days on the market.
Beyond big tech, the agentic commerce ecosystem includes e-commerce players like Walmart, which has taken steps to make its pages agent-friendly. Others include Shopify, which unlocked and amplified agentic shopping across its platform. It will be turned on automatically for any Shopify merchant.
Then there are detractors. Amazon is a well-known example of an eCommerce player that’s taken active steps to ban agents from its domain, along with eBay, Pizza Hut, Adidas, and several airlines. We’ll continue to see approaches diverge as the agentic shopping opportunity twists around and takes shape.
Header image credit: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
