The world’s leading artificial intelligence companies are betting that shopping will become a major application of AI “agents”, in a shift that is set to transform the multibillion-dollar ecommerce sector.

OpenAI, Perplexity, Google, and Microsoft have in recent months introduced AI-powered features that allow users to search for products through chatbots, with autonomous agents able to complete orders on behalf of consumers.

The rise of AI-powered agents has prompted sellers and brands to rethink how they sell products online, in particular how their products are spotted by AI systems and recommended by chatbots.