AI Shopping Is Coming. The Real Question Is Whether Retailers Are Ready

Imagine asking your AI assistant to find the best washing machine under R8,000, confirm availability, apply any relevant offers and arrange delivery for Saturday morning, preferably around 10.

That is no longer just a smarter search bar. It is the beginning of agentic shopping: a world in which digital assistants help customers move from intention to purchase with less friction, fewer steps and better information.

For retailers, the real issue is not whether AI will influence shopping. It will. The more important question is whether retailers have built the foundations that make AI-assisted shopping useful, reliable and trustworthy.

The biggest misconception about AI shopping is that readiness begins with launching an AI assistant. It does not. Readiness begins with the fundamentals of retail: clean product data, accurate pricing, dependable stock visibility, reliable fulfilment and a customer experience that is easy to understand.

AI shopping will not replace the fundamentals of retail. It will expose them.

The retailers that win in this next phase will not necessarily be those with the most exciting technology. They will be those whose value is easiest for customers to trust and easiest for AI assistants to interpret.

During a recent episode of the Pat on Brands Podcast, Langa Khanyile, Marketing Executive at Massmart, identified agentic shopping as one of the emerging trends shaping the future of retail.

While agentic shopping is still emerging in South Africa, the direction of travel is clear. Customers will increasingly expect shopping experiences that are easier, more personalised and more useful. They will expect retailers to understand their mission, simplify the options and make the next best action obvious.

Global research firms have pointed to agentic commerce as a meaningful shift in the path to purchase. Gartner has highlighted the effect of generative AI tools on product discovery and purchasing, while McKinsey describes agentic commerce as shopping powered by AI agents acting on behalf of consumers, with the potential to anticipate needs, navigate options and execute transactions.

From Search to Assistance

Retail has already become more intelligent. Recommendation engines suggest products based on browsing history. Chatbots answer customer questions. Personalised offers appear based on previous purchases. These tools have improved digital shopping, but they are still largely built around the customer doing the work.

Agentic shopping changes that relationship. Instead of scrolling, filtering and comparing manually, customers can describe what they need. The assistant can then interpret the mission, narrow the options, compare choices and help the customer act with more confidence.

Walmart’s AI shopping assistant, Sparky, shows where global retail is moving. Sparky helps customers find items, synthesise reviews, compare options and make more informed choices. Walmart has also indicated that future capabilities could include reordering household essentials, booking services and using text, images, audio and video to support shopping journeys.

The lesson for South Africa is not to copy a global example without context. The local opportunity depends on local realities: price sensitivity, value-seeking behaviour, trust, fulfilment reliability, payment flexibility, accurate availability and the ability to serve customers across both physical and digital channels.

What Readiness Really Means

For Massmart, readiness is not only about launching new digital tools. It is about strengthening the retail capabilities that make an AI-assisted shopping journey useful in the first place.

Product content must be clear enough for assistants to interpret. Pricing and promotions must be consistent enough to withstand comparison. Stock visibility must be accurate enough to support a recommendation. Fulfilment promises must be reliable enough to influence the customer’s decision.

This is where retail discipline becomes digital advantage. In an AI-assisted environment, poor data, unclear offers or unreliable fulfilment do not stay hidden. They become reasons for customers, and their assistants, to choose someone else.

The South African Retail Lens

South African shoppers are already comfortable with a hybrid retail world. They use mobile apps, browse online, compare prices, collect in store, request delivery and move between retailers depending on price, urgency, availability and trust.

Major retailers, including Makro, Checkers, Woolworths and Takealot, have invested in omnichannel capabilities that give customers more flexibility in how they shop. But flexibility alone will not be enough in an AI-assisted environment. The winning retailers will be those that make the customer’s mission simpler to complete.

For Makro, that mission is especially important in planned stock-up shopping, where customers often balance value, range, availability, bulk buying, delivery, collection and household or business needs. If an AI assistant is helping a customer decide where to shop, Makro must be easy to understand, easy to compare and easy to choose.

Khanyile explained that Massmart’s focus has been on creating an integrated shopping experience where customers can move more easily between physical stores and digital platforms. This reflects a broader strategic shift: digital is not a separate business. It is part of one connected customer experience.

“Across Massmart and particularly at Makro, we’re making our value to customers abundantly clear, easy to get to and easy to trust,” Khanyile explains.

What This Means for Brands and Retailers

AI shopping will also change how brands and retailers think about marketing. Search will become less about keywords and more about intent. Product content will need to be structured so that assistants can understand it. Retail media may shift as AI assistants become new environments for discovery, recommendation and comparison.

Contrary to some thinking, Brand does not become less important in this new context, rather, it makes Brand-proof more important.

If an assistant is narrowing choices on behalf of the customer, a retailer’s claims must be backed by a record of accurate information, real value, trusted availability and a fulfilment promise that holds.

In the past, retailers competed for shelf space. Then they competed for screen space. Soon, they may compete for recommendation space inside AI assistants.

The retailers that win will not necessarily be those with the best AI. They will be those whose value is easiest for AI to understand and easiest for customers to trust.