The conversation around AI in retail has shifted faster than almost anyone predicted. Just six months ago, many retailers were on the sidelines, uncertain whether agentic commerce was something they even wanted to participate in. Today, it’s a different story entirely.
In the latest episode of our ongoing 5 Insightful Minutes series, Maia Josebachvili, Chief Revenue Officer of AI at Stripe, joined Omni Talk to share what she’s hearing directly from retailers navigating this new frontier, and how Stripe is quietly becoming one of the most important players in making agentic commerce work at scale.
The Two Flavors of Agentic Commerce
Maia draws an important distinction that often gets lost in the industry buzz. Agentic commerce actually comes in two forms: AI-assisted commerce, where a consumer buys through a chat interface with AI support, and AI-delegated commerce, where an agent makes a purchase entirely on the consumer’s behalf. While the industry tends to use “agentic commerce” to describe both, Maia notes that most major retailers are currently prioritizing the ChatGPT-style, AI-assisted interactions as their immediate focus within the agent landscape.
The 180-Degree Mindset Shift
Perhaps the most striking insight from Maia’s conversation is how rapidly retailer sentiment has evolved. Six months ago, the prevailing attitude from merchants was uncertainty. Some might even say, reluctance. Fast forward to today, and the question has moved from “should we do this?” to “what’s our strategy?” Maia notes that this shift is happening at every level, from the board down to the C-suite.
But even with enthusiasm replacing hesitation, four core concerns are still keeping retail leaders up at night.
The Four Big Concerns Retailers Have Right Now
The first is control. Brands want to maintain ownership of the customer relationship and remain the merchant of record. Which is a non-negotiable for many established retailers.
The second is discoverability. When consumers are searching through AI agents, how do you ensure your products show up? And critically, how do you make your product catalog “agent legible,” i.e. structured and formatted in a way that AI systems can actually read and surface appropriately? This has emerged as one of the biggest and most practical conversations Maia is having with retailers.
The third is fraud. As Maia put it, the industry spent the last 20 years blocking bots, and now suddenly the message is “actually, bots, come buy all the things.” That’s a significant mindset and technology shift with real implications for fraud prevention infrastructure.
The fourth is checkout. Retailers have spent years optimizing conversion flows and the checkout experience. What does that process look like when an AI agent is the one transacting? How do you handle payments, conversion, and disputes in an agentic environment?
How Stripe Is Helping Merchants Get Ready
Stripe’s answer to these challenges starts with what it launched last fall: the Agent Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with OpenAI. The protocol creates a shared technical language between AI agents and businesses, making transactions smoother and more standardized across platforms.
The protocol is already live in several real-world environments. It powers instant checkout with ChatGPT, with brands like Etsy, Glossier, Spanx, and Walmart participating. It’s also live in Microsoft Copilot through what’s called Copilot Checkout, where brands like Urban Outfitters, Free People, Anthropologie, and Etsy allow consumers to complete an entire discovery and purchase journey entirely within the chat interface.
Building on that foundation, Stripe then launched the Agent Commerce Suite, a comprehensive solution designed to help businesses sell through multiple AI agents with a single integration and, importantly, without changing their existing commerce systems. The suite handles product discoverability for AI agents, checkout, payments, and fraud protection, all while maintaining the retailer’s merchant-of-record status. Merchants can also choose which AI agents they want to sell through directly from the Stripe dashboard.
Brands like Coach, Kate Spade, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters are already working within the suite, alongside e-commerce platforms including Wix, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Squarespace.
The Bottom Line
Maia believes agentic commerce is no longer a future scenario on which retailers can afford to wait. The infrastructure is being built now, the major platforms are going live, and the brands that are moving early are establishing the discoverability and checkout frameworks that will define the next era of retail. Stripe’s position, as both a payments giant and an AI commerce infrastructure provider, puts it at a uniquely important intersection of this transformation.
To hear Maia’s full breakdown of how retailers are thinking about agentic commerce and what Stripe is doing to solve the hardest problems related to it, listen to the full episode of 5 Insightful Minutes now wherever you enjoy your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Amazon Music
Be careful out there,
– Chris, Anne, and the Omni Talk team
P.S. To see our full lineup of past 5 Insightful Minute conversations, head here.
Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.