Your phone vibrates at 6 am It’s ChatGPT: “I see you are traveling to New York this week. Based on your preferences, I have found three restaurants near your hotel. Do you want me to make a reservation?”
You didn’t ask for it. The AI simply knew your plans by checking your calendar and email, and decided to help you. Later, you mention to the chatbot that you need flowers for your wife’s birthday. Within seconds, beautiful flower arrangements appear in the chat. You touch one: “Buy now.” Ready. The flowers are ordered.
This is not science fiction. On September 29, 2025, OpenAI and payment processor Stripe launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol. This technology allows you to buy things instantly on Etsy within ChatGPT conversations. ChatGPT users will have access to over a million other Shopify merchants, from big brands to small stores.
As marketing researchers who study how AI affects consumer behavior, we believe we are witnessing the beginning of the biggest shift in the way we shop since the advent of smartphones. Most people have no idea what is happening.
From search to attention
For three decades, the internet worked the same: you want something, you search for it on Google, you compare options, you decide, you buy. You are in control.
That era is coming to an end.
AI shopping assistants are evolving through three phases. First came “AI on demand”. You ask ChatGPT a question and it answers. That’s where most people are today.
Now we are getting into “ambient AI,” where AI suggests things before you ask for them. ChatGPT monitors your calendar, reads your emails, and offers recommendations without you asking.
Coming soon is “AI on autopilot,” where AI does the shopping for you with minimal intervention. “Order flowers for my anniversary next week.” ChatGPT reviews your calendar, remembers your preferences, processes payment and confirms delivery.
Each phase adds comfort, but gives you less control.
The problem of manipulation
The AI’s responses create what researchers call an “advice illusion.” When ChatGPT suggests three hotels, you don’t see them as ads. They sound like recommendations from a knowledgeable friend. But you don’t know if those hotels paid for the location or if there are better options that ChatGPT didn’t show you.
Traditional advertising is something that most people have learned to recognize and dismiss. But AI recommendations appear objective even when they are not. With one-touch purchasing, the entire process moves so seamlessly that you may not stop to compare options.
OpenAI is not alone in this race. That same month, Google announced its competing protocol, AP2. Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are developing similar systems. Whoever wins will be able to control how billions of people shop, which could represent a percentage of trillions of dollars in annual transactions.
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What are we giving up?
This convenience comes with costs that most people don’t think about.
Privacy: For the AI to suggest restaurants, it needs to read your calendar and emails. To buy flowers, you need your purchase history. People will trade total surveillance for convenience.
Options: Currently, you see multiple options when searching. With AI as the intermediary, you could see only three options that ChatGPT chooses. Entire businesses could become invisible if AI decides to ignore them.
The power of comparing: When ChatGPT suggests products with a single tap, the friction that made you stop and compare disappears.
It’s happening faster than you think
ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly users in September 2025, growing four times faster than social media platforms. Major retailers began using OpenAI’s Agenetic Trading Protocol within days of its launch.
History shows that people consistently underestimate how quickly they adapt to convenient technologies. Not long ago, most people wouldn’t even think about getting into a stranger’s car. Uber now has 150 million users.
Convenience always wins. The question is not whether AI shopping will become widespread. The question is whether people will maintain real control over what they buy and why.
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What can you do
The open internet put a world of information and options at people’s fingertips. The AI revolution could eliminate that. Not by forcing people, but by making it so easy for the algorithm to decide that they forget what it’s really like to choose for themselves. Buying things is becoming as thoughtless as sending a text message.
Furthermore, a single company could become the gatekeeper of all digital purchases, with monopolization potential that even surpasses Amazon’s current dominance in e-commerce. We think it’s important to at least have an intense public debate about whether this is the future that people really want.
Here are some steps you can take to resist the temptation of comfort:
Question the AI’s suggestions. When ChatGPT suggests products to you, please acknowledge that you are viewing select options, not all available options. Before you make a one-click purchase, stop and ask yourself: Would I buy this if I had to visit five websites and compare prices?
Carefully review your privacy settings. Understand what you are sacrificing for convenience.
Talk about this with your friends and family. The transition to AI shopping is happening without the public knowing. It’s time to talk about acceptable limits, before one-touch shopping becomes so normal that questioning it seems strange.
The invisible price
The AI will learn what you want, perhaps even before you want it. Every time you press “Buy Now”, you are training it: you teach it your patterns, your weaknesses and what time of day you buy impulsively.
Our warning is not about rejecting technology. It’s about recognizing the disadvantages. Every comfort has a price. Every touch is information. The companies that develop these systems are betting that you won’t notice, and in most cases they’re probably right.
*Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui is Associate Professor of Marketing, Coastal Carolina University; Patrick van Esch is Associate Professor of Marketing, Coastal Carolina University
This text was originally published in The Conversation
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