29 April - Sydney | 30 April - Melbourne
AI that works in agentic commerce
Bridging the expertise gap in AI-driven customer journeys
A closed-door executive dinner exploring the next evolution of the customer journey.
Most digital commerce experiences were built for a search-and-click world, where customers do the work of discovery, comparison and decision-making. Today, customers are increasingly delegating discovery and purchasing decisions to AI agents, introducing new pathways through which commerce can occur.
In some cases, a customer’s agent may complete the entire journey on their behalf, discovering options, evaluating alternatives and executing the purchase without the customer ever visiting a retailer’s site.
In other cases, the agent may assist with initial discovery before bringing the customer to the retailer’s own website, where the brand’s digital concierge experience can take over, providing deeper advice, bundling and decision support.
This shift introduces a new transition of trust in the customer journey. Preparing for this reality requires closer collaboration between technology teams responsible for platforms and infrastructure and customer and commerce teams responsible for experience, growth and margin.
This Digital Leaders Network discussion will explore how organisations remain discoverable and transactable by external agents while building expert concierge experiences on their own platforms that support AI-mediated purchasing and payment execution.
Sydney:
Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2026
Time: 5:45 - 9:00pm AEST
Venue: Bentley Restaurant
Address: 27 O'Connell Street, Sydney NSW
Melbourne
Date: Thursday, 30 April 2026
Time: 5:45 - 9:00pm AEST
Venue: Circl
Address: 22 Punch Lane, Melbourne VIC
The discussion
Our discussion will explore the structural tensions created as AI agents begin to participate directly in customer journeys.
What happens when a customer’s AI agent handles discovery, comparison and purchase entirely on their behalf?
We explore how organisations can ensure their platforms are discoverable, interoperable and transactable by external agents, enabling them to remain in the consideration set even when the customer never visits their site.
When a third-party agent helps a customer arrive at your site, how do your systems recognise and act on that context immediately?
We examine how retailers can avoid the “intent reset” that occurs when AI-driven discovery meets traditional interfaces, enabling the brand’s own concierge experience to continue the journey seamlessly.
External agents can locate products, but they cannot reason through complex needs, build routines or assemble tailored bundles.
We discuss how organisations can embed domain expertise into their platforms so that conversational AI can provide the high-value advice, cross-sell and decision support that turns a simple match into a high-margin sale.
What happens when payment itself is delegated?
We examine the emerging agentic handshake, where transactions may be authorised by the customer but executed by either a third-party agent or a retailer’s own AI concierge.
This raises new questions around payment authorisation, identity, risk controls and how organisations maintain trust and control in agent-mediated transactions.
If a meaningful share of your transactions involved conversational reasoning or autonomous purchasing tomorrow, where would the journey fail?
We discuss how organisations must evolve from simply storing customer data to processing delegated intent and reasoning in real time, while ensuring payments, inventory and fulfilment systems remain resilient at machine speed.
Speakers
Andy Nolan, Director of Emerging Technologies, Thoughtworks
Andy Nolan is Director of Emerging Technologies at Thoughtworks Melbourne, specialising in AI, machine learning and innovation. Since joining in 2021, he has launched the Luminary Scholarship for XR and accessibility research and delivered AI-powered solutions that spark creativity and reduce clients’ carbon footprints.
Alla Gancz, Payments and platform readiness SME, Thoughtworks
Alla Gancz is Global Head of Payments and Payments Vertical Leader at Thoughtworks, shaping strategy across the payments ecosystem from retail and e‑commerce to financial services and fintech. A former EY Partner and UK Payments Consulting Leader, she focuses on payments modernisation, platforms, data and AI, and is a regular voice on the future of payments and digital money.
Mara Cajar Robinson, Global Director, AI Enabled Platform Strategy and Solutions, Thoughtworks
Mara Cajar‑Robinson is Global Director, AI‑Enabled Platform Ecosystems at Thoughtworks, with over 20 years’ experience as a futurist, strategist and corporate executive. She helps organisations harness AI‑enabled platforms to redesign how they create, deliver and capture value, reframing challenges as opportunities for ecosystem advantage, smarter ways of working and meaningful customer impact.
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