Price.com launched “Buy with AI,” a feature that allows an AI agent to search for products, apply discounts, and complete purchases on the open internet without needing consumers to visit merchant websites.
Instead of retailers and marketplaces controlling discovery and checkout through branded storefronts, AI agents are beginning to position themselves between buyers and sellers. They now determine what gets bought, where, and at what price. This change is significant because payment networks and retail platforms are racing to insert themselves within that agent layer. This signals a broader shift in who controls demand and transaction flow.
Price.com Shows How
Price.com’s Buy with AI extends AI beyond recommendations to execution. According to the release, the agent accepts user intent, scans retailers across the open web, compares prices and availability, applies savings, and completes the transaction. The consumer does not manually browse or check out. The AI manages the entire process. This design transforms Price.com from a comparison site to a transaction-executing intermediary, capable of influencing purchasing decisions before shoppers even reach a merchant’s site.
This shift follows a broader trend emerging across commerce. CNBC reported that shopping tools are combining price comparison, discount application, and automated checkout into one flow, allowing AI agents to uncover lower prices and complete transactions with minimal consumer input. The outcome is a shopping experience where storefronts are less important than the agent making the decision.
PYMNTS Intelligence data shows that consumers are becoming comfortable with this tradeoff. About 30% of consumers say they are willing to let AI assistants handle everyday planning or shopping tasks. In an earlier PYMNTS survey, 32% said they have used or would consider using generative AI for shopping. Convenience and savings drive this willingness, especially in categories where consumers already compare prices aggressively.
Price.com’s launch illustrates what agentic commerce looks like in practice. The AI does not merely guide users; it acts on their behalf. This distinction requires a change in how retailers, platforms, and payment providers think about influence. When AI controls the buying moment, whoever controls the agent controls demand.
Visa, Amazon Expand Agent Layer
Payments networks and retail platforms are responding quickly. Visa introduced “Find and Buy with AI,” a set of features designed to let conversational AI systems find products and complete purchases using Visa’s global payments infrastructure. This initiative positions Visa within AI-driven checkout flows instead of at the end of traditional merchant funnels. As AI agents initiate transactions, Visa is ensuring that authorization, fraud controls, and settlements continue to operate through its systems. As reported by PYMNTS, the company also launched the Trusted Agent Protocol, which allows information exchange between agents and merchants.
Amazon is testing a more controlled version of agentic shopping within its ecosystem. The company recently expanded AI-driven shopping features in its app. These include agent-assisted experiences that help users discover products and, in some cases, complete purchases from participating brand websites without leaving Amazon’s interface.
This pressure explains why traditional retailers are investing behind the scenes. Tesco recently signed a three-year generative AI agreement with Mistral AI to improve data analysis, internal workflows, and customer experience. While Tesco has not launched a consumer-facing shopping agent, the investment strengthens the systems that agentic commerce relies on: clean data, personalization, and real-time decision support.
As PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster discussed, the protocol power struggle is shaping AI-driven commerce. The next phase of competition will focus on who sets the rules that govern how AI agents transact. As checkout moves from storefronts to software, protocols will increasingly determine which merchants are highlighted, how payments are authorized, and where value accumulates.
