What is Agentic Commerce?

"Agentic commerce is the structural condition in which the act of purchase is delegated from the human consumer to autonomous AI agents that search, compare, decide, and transact on the consumer's behalf. The human still consumes. The algorithm now buys. Marketing, branding, distribution, and joint business planning must all be rebuilt for an intermediary that does not feel, does notsee advertising, and does not remember your brand 20-year history with them." Paul F. Accornero. Author, The Algorithmic Shopper, (St. Martin's Press, 2027) Founder, The AI Praxis

What is the Shopper Schism®?

The Shopper Schism® is a term coined by Paul Accornero from The AI Praxis™. It is a structural shift in commerce where the human consumer who eats or uses a product separates from the entity that purchases it -which is increasingly an AI-driven digital proxy. Traditional marketing models rely on human basket psychology and packaging design to win at the shelf. In the age of agentic commerce, brands must market to a non-human buyer that prioritizes machine-readable data, availability, and pure optimization over emotional persuasion.

How exposed are grocery brands to AI-driven substitution?

Appinio consumer insights reveal that grocery brands face an immediate risk to their passive market share. According to a transatlantic study of 2,000 shoppers, roughly half of all shelf equity is negotiable from day one. Specifically, 50.8% of UK consumers and 48.9% of US consumers state they would openly trust an AI shopping assistant to substitute a trusted, preferred brand with an alternative recommended by the algorithm without prior approval. However, not all categories and brands are equal. It is imperative you understand the consumer sentiment and risk for your brand and your category.

Report download

The Great Split.

Grocery brands are no longer marketing to a single human household. They are now forced to appeal to the emotional human consumer and the rational machine buyer simultaneously.

Discover how agentic AI is quietly restructuring the grocery aisle.

Based on a transatlantic survey of 2,000 consumers, this report reveals how the "shopper" and the "consumer" are fracturing into two separate entities, wiping out half of passive brand loyalty on day one.

Featuring expert analytical commentary by Paul F. Accornero from The AI Praxis™, learn how to gain first-mover advantage and rewrite your retail playbook.

Catch up on the webinar

Join Appinio's Louise Leitsch and Paul F. Accornero from The AI Praxis™ for a captivating fireside chat on agentic grocery shopping.

In this 1 hour session you can expect to:

Explore exclusive proprietary consumer research: Discover how consumers truly think about utilizing Agentic AI for their grocery shopping - from initial awareness to adoption and trust.
Navigate the Shopper Schism®: Understand why the shopper function is migrating to agents faster than the consumer function, and why this shift necessitates a rewrite of traditional playbooks.

Watch recording

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Guest blog series by Paul Accornero, The AI Praxis™

Guest blog

Half Your Shelf Just Became Negotiable

Passive brand loyalty is facing an immediate reckoning. Our insights reveal that half of consumers are ready to let an AI algorithm swap their preferred brands, without asking first.

In this blog article, Paul Accornero explores the commercial impact of the "Shopper Schism®".

Discover why traditional brand premium must now be translated into machine-legible operational metrics, and learn how to implement the "Four D's™" framework to anchor your products as the automated default choice before the competition sets the parameters for the decade.

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Guest blog

Why CPG's Biggest Trust Problem is the Most Mundane One

The real barrier holding back the agentic shopping revolution isn't big-picture AI ethics or data privacy - it is SKU-level reliability.

Across both the UK and US, a symmetrical 39% of consumers state their single biggest fear is the AI simply buying the wrong item.

This blog article breaks down the "Accuracy Paradox" and charts the "Three Layers of Trust" platforms must earn in sequence. Learn why data quality has shifted from a back-office IT line item to a critical boardroom asset for brand survival.

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Survey dashboards

Dive into the data

Access the complete, verified dataset behind The Great Split. Select a regional dashboard below to interact directly with the research findings from both the UK and US markets

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Want to benchmark your category's specific substitution risk, analyze your brand positioning to maximize your Category Entry Points (CEPs), or uncover the optimal data and keywords so your brand is discoverable by AI agents

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Agentic Commerce FAQs

"Agentic commerce is the structural condition in which the act of purchase is delegated from the human consumer to autonomous AI agents that search, compare, decide, and transact on the consumer's behalf. The human still consumes. The algorithm now buys. Marketing, branding, distribution, and joint business planning must all be rebuilt for an intermediary that does not feel, does notsee advertising, and does not remember your brand 20-year history with them." Paul F. Accornero. Author, The Algorithmic Shopper, (St. Martin's Press, 2027) Founder, The AI Praxis
The Shopper Schism® is a term coined by Paul Accornero from The AI Praxis™. It is a structural shift in commerce where the human consumer who eats or uses a product separates from the entity that purchases it -which is increasingly an AI-driven digital proxy. Traditional marketing models rely on human basket psychology and packaging design to win at the shelf. In the age of agentic commerce, brands must market to a non-human buyer that prioritizes machine-readable data, availability, and pure optimization over emotional persuasion.
Appinio consumer insights reveal that grocery brands face an immediate risk to their passive market share. According to a transatlantic study of 2,000 shoppers, roughly half of all shelf equity is negotiable from day one. Specifically, 50.8% of UK consumers and 48.9% of US consumers state they would openly trust an AI shopping assistant to substitute a trusted, preferred brand with an alternative recommended by the algorithm without prior approval. However, not all categories and brands are equal. It is imperative you understand the consumer sentiment and risk for your brand and your category.
Appinio empowers CPG brands and retailers to gauge consumer sentiment and measure readiness metrics. Whether you need to benchmark your category's specific substitution risk, analyze your brand positioning to maximize your Category Entry Points (CEPs), or uncover the optimal data and keywords to ensure your brand is discoverable by AI agents, Appinio delivers scientifically rigorous consumer insights to enable smart decision making.