""We anticipate 2026 to be a hockey stick year in terms of adoption of agentic AI," Kassi Socha, senior director analyst of marketing at Gartner, told Retail Brew. "[2026] will be a building year, a building of inputs, a continued strengthening of content and experiences and actual adoption, not just announcements of agentic AI.""
""Consumers will be exposed to agentic at every touchpoint," she added. "They'll walk into stores and have the opportunity to interface with an agent through store displays. They'll land on a website, and they may experience an AI agent before they actually start clicking. So it won't just be the promise and announcement of agentic, but it'll be the true experience maturation year.""
Agentic AI will shape retail in 2026 by determining product visibility on platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Retailers must deliver AI-powered shopping experiences that feel conversational and seamless. Major companies, from Walmart to Google, will invest in agentic solutions, driving refinement of tools introduced in 2025 as usage increases. EMarketer projects AI-driven e-commerce will account for 5% of online shopping in 2026. Adoption will expand across touchpoints including in-store displays and websites. Retailers will prioritize visibility, control, brand-safe appearances, and content optimized for agentic recommendation systems.
Read at Retail Brew
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