Survey: Agentic Commerce Has a Payment Trust Problem

New survey finds AI-assisted shopping is surging, but consumers still draw the line at checkout

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Wildfire Systems, a loyalty and consumer insights platform, today released its 2026 Consumer Rewards & Behavioral Shopping Trends report, "Agentic Commerce's Wallet Problem." Based on a survey of 1,007 U.S. consumers, the report finds a widening divide between consumers' willingness to use AI to research, compare and find products - and their willingness to let AI handle the transaction itself.

According to the 2026 survey, consumers were rapidly adopting AI for shopping and product discovery, but remained far more hesitant to hand over control of the actual transaction. This pattern is consistent with broader industry research: Mastercard's recent Signals research found that 85% of consumers are open to working with an AI agent to find the best option, while only one in 10 are willing to let an agent complete a purchase autonomously.

The industry is already adapting to that divide. In March, OpenAI shifted its shopping strategy toward product discovery and merchants' own checkout experiences, saying its initial Instant Checkout model did not offer the level of flexibility it wanted to provide merchants.

Key takeaways from Wildfire's 2026 survey include:

The payment trust gap is bigger than the AI adoption gap

• 71% of U.S. consumers now use AI chatbots, up from 22% two years ago.
• Among AI users, 56% use AI for price comparison and 44% for deal-hunting.
• Yet only 5% would trust an AI platform itself to process an agent's payment, while 41% would trust none of the payment options tested.

Agentic commerce is likely to scale from low-stakes purchases up

• 29% are "very comfortable" letting an agent make a purchase under $20, falling to just 6% for purchases of $500 or more.
• 23% are very comfortable delegating toiletries or household basics, compared with 17% for airfare or hotels.

Economic pressure is turning AI into a deal-hunting tool

• 56% of AI users say the economy has made them more interested in using AI to find deals, rising to 78% among households with children under 13.
• 45% say getting better deals is the top reason they would delegate shopping to an agent, ahead of saving time at 37%.

Familiar financial value could make AI checkout more appealing

• 38% say having loyalty rewards carried through to an AI-driven purchase would make them more comfortable buying directly through AI, while 36% cite cashback.
• Those benefits rank above an AI platform's money-back guarantee (29%) and fraud protection (27%).

Banks have a trust advantage today - but digital wallets are moving quickly

• Banks are the most-trusted named option to process an AI agent's payment at 17%.
• Digital wallets are close behind at 14%, followed by credit card networks and major retailers at 12% each.

The report concludes that the near-term opportunity for agentic commerce is likely to develop from the bottom up - beginning with lower-cost, routine purchases - while the larger battle shifts toward who earns consumers' trust when an AI agent is ready to transact.

"Consumers are already comfortable letting AI influence the shopping decision; they're far less settled on who should control the payment," said Tristan Barnum, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of AI Innovation at Wildfire Systems. "That makes the trust layer - rather than product discovery - the next major question for agentic commerce."

The 2026 Consumer Rewards & Behavioral Shopping Trends Report, "Agentic Commerce's Wallet Problem," is available here.

About Wildfire Systems, Inc.

San Diego-based Wildfire provides a commerce intelligence platform that powers white-label shopping rewards programs and retail media for financial services and technology partners. The platform helps organizations drive customer engagement with cashback, coupons, and savings while capturing shopping behavior insights, which help drive incremental sales from more than 50,000 merchant programs in 50+ countries and enable advertisers to reach high-intent shoppers through the Wildfire Commerce Network (WCN). Ranked on the Inc. 5000 in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Learn more at wildfire-corp.com.

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SOURCE Wildfire Systems