💳 From Card Present to Agent Present?Why Google’s AI Shopping Experience Won’t Make a Dent

Imagine this.

You wake up.
Check your phone.
And discover your AI agent went on a late-night shopping spree while you slept:

• ✈️ Booked you a luxury holiday to Greece
• 📱 Ordered the next-gen iPhone and Apple Watch Ultra
• 🧥 Added a $1,200 Patagonia winter jacket
• 🍽️ Reserved a tasting menu for two at El Bulli (yes, it’s closed, but your agent hallucinated it’s still open)
• 🧾 Total spend? $25,000 — on your card. No confirmation. No consent.

Welcome to the Agent Present future Google is imagining.

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At Google I/O 2025, they announced AI Mode in Search — a bold leap into agentic commerce where AI doesn’t just assist but acts on your behalf.
From product discovery to checkout — all automated.

📉 PaymentsPedia’s verdict?
The tech’s flashy — but real shopping behavior isn’t budging. Not yet.

Let’s unpack why 👇

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🔐 1. Would You Let a Bot Spend Your Money?
Only 28% of global consumers are okay with AI making purchases.
People fear overspending, misalignment, or data misuse.

Agentic commerce breaks a psychological barrier: it removes control.

🧠 Analogy: You wouldn’t give your credit card to a stranger with “good intentions.” Why would you give it to an AI?

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💔 2. Shopping Isn’t Search — It’s Emotional, Human, Messy
Google is trying to optimize logic. But shopping isn’t math:

• It’s impulse, mood, celebration, gifting
• It’s discovery, not decisions

AI can rank features. It can’t captureCapture capture The act of finalizing an authorized payment. Funds are transferred from the cardholder’s account to the merchant. feelings.

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🧩 3. Incomplete Agent = Incomplete Experience
For AI Mode to work, it needs access to:

• Real-time inventory
• SKU-level pricing
• Promotions
• Fulfilment logic

But Amazon, Shein, and most D2C brands won’t feed Google this data.

Walled gardens stay walled. AI Mode will often be working in the dark.

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🛠 4. Complexity Wrapped in Convenience
Most users don’t want more AI. They want:

• Clear filters
• Real reviews
• Transparent prices
• Seamless checkout

AI Mode risks creating a black box:

• You don’t know what it searched
• You don’t know what it ignored
• You don’t know why something showed up

Agent present. User absent.

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🛒 5. Retailers Will Push Back — Hard
Agentic commerce cuts across:

• Loyalty funnels
• Upselling tactics
• Checkout control

Retailers won’t let Google hijack the customer journey. Expect:

• API throttling
• Closed ecosystems
• Redirects to native apps

Google needs brands more than brands need Google.

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🕒 6. Habits Die Hard — and Take Time
Voice assistants promised the same shift in 2016.
We’re still clicking, comparing, reading reviews.
People want recommendation, not replacement.
The illusion of control still matters.

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⚠️ 7. FraudFraud fraud Criminal deception involving unauthorized payments or use of financial credentials., Chargebacks & AI Hallucinations: Who’s Liable?
VisaVisa visa A leading global payment technology company connecting consumers, businesses, and banks., MastercardMasterCard mastercard A global payments network enabling electronic transactions between banks, merchants, and cardholders., Amex, PayPal — they’ve refined fraud, dispute, and chargebackChargeback chargeback A dispute raised by the cardholder that results in reversal of a transaction. Can lead to penalties for merchants. resolution over decades.

But what if:

• AI hallucinates a product?
• Buys from a scam store?
• Misses a price drop?
• Orders something the user didn’t mean?

Who takes the blame?
Google? The merchantMerchant merchant An individual or business that accepts payments in exchange for goods or services.? The consumer?

Right now, there are no rules. No rails. No protections.

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📉 Final Thought: Agent Present Is a 2030 Problem, Not a 2025 Reality

Google’s AI shopping feels bold and futuristic.
But it skips past the most important piece of consumer commerce: trust, emotion, and accountability.

Yes — it may change how we search.
But it won’t change how we shop — not today, and not tomorrow.