The landscape of online shopping is undergoing a transformative shift, with AI-powered shopping poised to redefine consumer behavior and merchant strategies. Wallid.co Ltd, a pioneering fintech company based in London, has released a comprehensive 3-year forecast highlighting the rapid growth of AI-commerce, projecting it to reach $945 billion by 2028, accounting for 15% of all online purchases. This evolution from traditional search-and-scroll models to conversational and intelligent buying flows signifies a paradigm shift in how consumers discover and purchase products online.
According to Ilya Mikin, CEO of Wallid, the emergence of 'ask-and-checkout' experiences is set to revolutionize the e-commerce industry. This new model allows consumers to receive personalized product suggestions from AI assistants and complete purchases within the same interface, a trend already gaining traction with integrations like OpenAI-Shopify and initiatives by tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and TikTok.
Wallid's research underscores the importance for merchants to prepare across four critical dimensions: discovery, personalization, checkout, and retention. The company is at the forefront of this shift, developing a next-generation checkout platform designed for embedded AI interfaces. This platform supports real-time contextual adaptations, account-to-account payments, and features like split-pay and cashback offers, aiming to become the transactional engine behind the future of agent-led commerce.
The implications of this shift are profound, not only for merchants and platforms but also for consumers, who stand to benefit from more personalized, efficient, and secure shopping experiences. As AI agents become increasingly capable of handling complex shopping tasks on behalf of consumers, the demand for AI-optimized payment solutions like those offered by Wallid is expected to surge, marking a new era in e-commerce.
