White paper
Retail Insights 2026: From experiments to operational advantage
AI is changing how customers discover, compare and buy products.
For retailers, success means staying visible in AI-driven shopping journeys, creating experiences that differentiate their brand and enabling trusted agent-led transactions.
Consumers are embracing AI-powered shopping, but businesses aren't keeping pace.
New research from Thoughtworks and Stripe reveals a growing gap between consumer adoption and business readiness across Australia and New Zealand.
The commercial opportunity is already emerging. AI-driven traffic is growing and converting at higher rates, yet many businesses lack the data, infrastructure and capabilities to take full advantage.
Explore the research to understand what's holding businesses back and where to focus to turn agentic commerce ambition into action.
| 81% | of surveyed consumers have used AI tools to support online shopping. |
| 35% | of surveyed businesses maintain structured, machine-readable catalogues. |
| 11% | of surveyed businesses are scaling live agentic commerce integrations. |
Source: Thoughtworks and Stripe, Agentic Commerce: From Confidence to Execution (2026). Research conducted across Australia and New Zealand.
What does it take to compete in the agentic era?
Three connected capabilities are shaping how retailers compete in the agentic era: discovery, differentiation and trust. Together, they provide the foundations for creating value from AI-driven shopping journeys.
Discovery
Make your products findable, understood and recommended by AI.
External AI agents need accurate, accessible product information to recommend the right products to shoppers.
Thoughtworks helps you:
Structure product data around customer intent and shopping needs.
Make product information accessible through machine-readable catalogues and APIs.
Connect product, inventory and commerce systems to enable accurate recommendations and agent-led purchasing.
Differentiation
Turn customer understanding into experiences that set you apart.
Go beyond traditional search with AI shopping experiences that understand customer intent and provide personalised guidance.
Thoughtworks helps you:
Design first-party AI experiences that adapt to customer needs in real time.
Combine customer insights and category expertise to deliver personalised recommendations and guided shopping.
Connect AI agents, product data and commerce systems to deliver seamless, adaptive shopping experiences.
Trust
Make every agent-led interaction secure, transparent and accountable.
As AI agents act on customers' behalf, clear permissions, customer control and secure transactions become essential.
Thoughtworks helps you:
Establish clear permissions, spending limits and customer controls over agent-led actions.
Enable secure transactions through agent verification, authentication and payment integration.
Implement governance, monitoring and audit trails to ensure transparency and accountability.
Move from AI ambition to commercial advantage
Build on what you have. Prove what works. Scale what matters.
Turning discovery, differentiation and trust into commercial advantage doesn't mean replacing your technology stack.
Thoughtworks helps you identify where agentic commerce can deliver measurable value, connect the capabilities you already have and build what you need to scale.
Identify
Prioritise customer journeys with measurable commercial potential.
Connect
Assess the data, platforms, integrations and safeguards required.
Prove
Design and test focused experiences against clear success measures.
Scale
Use evidence to guide investment and implementation.
Our partner ecosystem
Thoughtworks combines deep AI engineering expertise, a leading technology partner ecosystem and reusable accelerators to help retailers build and scale agentic commerce capabilities. We work with your existing platforms and systems to accelerate delivery without compromising flexibility or control.
What happens when AI agents work together across the customer journey?
Powered by Thoughtworks' AI/works™, this demonstration brings together intelligent product recommendations, purchasing, fulfilment and proactive aftercare. See how connected AI agents can simplify shopping, manage disruptions and create more seamless customer experiences.
