Accenture Survey Finds AI Agents Reshape Consumer Behavior

Accenture's global survey of more than 25,000 consumers across 16 countries found that 74 percent of respondents would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf. The report, titled "Talk to My AI Agent," also revealed that 71 percent of consumers expect at least half of their spending in a given category to be influenced by AI within the next 12 months. These findings signal a major shift toward agent-driven commerce, underscoring the need for platforms to prioritize privacy controls, consent models, and transparent oversight mechanisms.

Accenture Survey Finds AI Agents Reshape Consumer Behavior According to Accenture's global survey reported by WWD, more than 25,000 consumers across 16 countries were polled online between Jan. 7 and Jan. 22 for the report titled "Talk to My AI Agent." The survey found that 74 percent of respondents would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf, and 74 percent are open to an agent completing commerce tasks if the consumer remains in control, per WWD. Nearly one third of consumers would let an agent make the final purchasing decision within defined boundaries, and about 71 percent say at least 50 percent of their spend in a given category will be influenced by AI over the next 12 months, according to the same report. Editorial analysis: These responses indicate rising consumer openness to agent-driven commerce workflows and underscore design priorities for privacy, controls, and transparency. What happened According to Accenture's global survey reported by WWD, Accenture surveyed more than 25,000 consumers across 16 countries online between Jan. 7 and Jan. 22 for the report titled "Talk to My AI Agent." The report finds that 74 percent of respondents would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf, and 74 percent are open to an agent completing commerce tasks negotiating deals, resolving complaints, reordering or renewing subscriptions provided the consumer remains in control, per WWD. Nearly one third of consumers would let an agent make the final purchasing decision within defined boundaries, and about 71 percent say at least 50 percent of their spend in a given category will be influenced by AI over the next 12 months, according to the same article. Editorial analysis - technical context Industry-pattern observations: Rising consumer willingness to delegate transactions to AI agents suggests product teams and platform engineers will need stronger agent control surfaces, consent models, and audit logs. Observers note that agent-enabled commerce increases the importance of granular permissions, configurable guardrails, and rollback/override mechanisms to maintain consumer trust. Context and significance For commerce platforms, payment processors, and identity providers, the survey's numbers indicate a potential shift from human-initiated checkout flows toward agent-mediated interactions. This shift raises integration questions around secure delegation, tokenized payment authorizations, and standards for verifying agent actions across merchants. What to watch For practitioners: Key indicators to monitor include emergence of standardized agent-to-merchant APIs, adoption of permissioned payment tokens for delegated checkout, and vendor announcements about agent permission tooling. Also watch regulatory conversations around automated purchasing, consumer protections, and data-handling expectations tied to autonomous agent activity. Caveats What happened is reported by Accenture and summarized by WWD; the survey results describe consumer attitudes and reported willingness to adopt agent behaviors rather than measured agent-driven commerce volumes today. The report also links consumer comfort to safeguards such as data protections, instant override, and clear recourse when outcomes are unsatisfactory, per WWD. Scoring Rationale A large, cross-country survey indicating broad consumer openness to agent-driven commerce is notable for practitioners building commerce, identity, and payments infrastructure. It is not a product or model launch, but it signals meaningful demand-side shifts that engineers and product teams should monitor. Practice with real Retail & eCommerce data 90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets 250 free problems · No credit card See all Retail & eCommerce problems /problems/datasets/retail