Agentic commerce: what it means for Canadian businesses and how to prepare 

Summary

Agentic commerce is a new way of buying and selling where AI-powered agents can discover, evaluate and complete purchases on behalf of customers or businesses, with less manual effort at every step. For Canadian businesses, this represents a new discovery and demand channel, not a disruption to manage overnight. This blog explains what agentic commerce is, why it matters for customer experience and what Canadian businesses should be thinking about now, so they are ready when customers start buying in new ways.

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is an emerging evolution of digital commerce where software agents, often AI-powered, act on behalf of customers or businesses to discover, evaluate, purchase and manage goods and services.

Unlike traditional automation or ecommerce, agentic systems operate with delegated authority. They do not merely assist users. They act within defined constraints on their behalf. A consumer's AI shopping agent, for example, could identify the best price for a recurring household item, place the order, arrange delivery and reconcile the charge against a budget, all without requiring the customer to step in at any point.

For customers, this can mean fewer steps, less friction and more confidence that routine purchases are handled reliably. For businesses, it can mean higher conversion, better retention and more predictable purchasing if the experience is trustworthy and transparent.

With deep expertise across Canadian payments, Moneris is already seeing the early signals of agentic commerce emerge. As buying shifts toward AI-driven interactions, the commerce infrastructure that connects businesses to their customers at the point of payment must support these new behaviours securely and seamlessly, whether it is initiated by a person or an agent. Moneris is focused on supporting businesses to adapt as customer expectations evolve. 

An agentic commerce system is typically capable of:

•     Discovering products and services across digital channels
•     Evaluating options based on pre-set rules or learned preferences
•     Initiating payments and completing transactions
•     Managing post-purchase actions such as reconciliation, refunds or renewals

This is a shift from the traditional commerce model, where customers browse, compare and purchase on their own, to one where AI agents can handle those steps on their behalf. For businesses, it represents a new discovery and demand channel. It changes the customer journey from discovery through payment, service and support, and it raises the bar for reliability, transparency and control.

Why should Canadian businesses pay attention now?

Agentic commerce is not something businesses need to rush into. But it is something they should understand and start planning for.

The momentum is real. According to KPMG Canada data, 91 per cent of Canadian companies are already preparing for agentic AI systems, with 27 per cent having implemented them. Major payment networks and technology companies are actively building the infrastructure to support agent-driven transactions. AI shopping agents are already live on major consumer platforms.

For businesses, agentic commerce opens a new way for customers to find and buy from you. Instead of browsing a website or walking into a store, a customer’s AI agent could discover your products, compare your pricing and complete a purchase on the customer’s behalf, all within the agent’s interface.

The businesses that prepare now will be best positioned to capture this agent-driven traffic when it scales. Those who wait may find the connections, protocols and trusted relationships already established by others.

But preparation does not just mean technology. It means thinking about the experience: customer transparency, clear permissions, easy service recovery and strong brand trust.

What does agentic commerce mean for customer experience?

For most businesses, agentic commerce will be felt first through customer experience, not through back-end systems. The customer journey changes in important ways:

Discovery shifts. Customers may not visit your website directly. Their AI agent may find you using product data, reviews and pricing information made available through open standards and structured data.

Checkout changes. Instead of a customer tapping a card or clicking a button, an agent may initiate and complete a purchase on the customer’s behalf, using delegated authority and pre-set rules.

Post-purchase expectations rise. When an agent handles a purchase, customers expect the same level of control and transparency they have today: clear notifications, easy-to-access refund paths and the ability to pause or cancel agent activity at any time.

Brand trust becomes more important, not less. In an agentic world, customers will judge brands not just by how fast purchases happen, but by how well exceptions are handled. A missed delivery, an unexpected charge or a difficult refund will erode trust quickly, especially when the customer was not directly involved in the transaction.

The businesses that succeed will be the ones that make agent-driven purchasing feel as safe and straightforward as today’s best checkout experiences, with stronger controls and clearer accountability.

Who controls the customer experience in an agentic world?

As agentic commerce scales, businesses will face a choice in how they participate. Some platforms and ecosystems will offer to handle the full agent-driven experience on the business's behalf, including checkout, customer communication and service resolution. That may sound convenient, but it means handing over visibility into how your customers are buying, what they are being charged and how issues are resolved.

The alternative is to preserve the business-of-record model, where the seller retains control over checkout, fulfillment and customer relationships, even when an AI agent is involved in the transaction.

This matters because:

•     Customers expect it. When something goes wrong, the customer looks to the business they purchased from, not the AI agent that placed the order.
•     Regulations require it. Canadian consumer protection and privacy frameworks hold businesses accountable for transactions and data handling, regardless of how the transaction was initiated.
•     Brand experience depends on it. If a third-party platform or closed ecosystem controls the checkout, the business loses visibility into the customer experience and the ability to resolve issues directly.

Canadian businesses should be cautious about locking into closed or proprietary agent ecosystems that dictate terms, fees and the experience their customers receive. Open standards protect choice and ensure businesses can participate in agentic commerce on their own terms.

Why trust and security go hand-in-hand

When people transact, intent is explicit. A person enters a card PIN, taps a device or clicks a confirmation button. Intent is expressed in the moment.

When agents transact, intent must be provable. The agent acts on authority granted earlier by a consumer, a business or another system. That delegated authority must be verifiable, time-limited and revocable.

From a customer standpoint, this is the difference between “convenient” and “concerning.” Customers will embrace agents when they can clearly see:

•     What the agent is allowed to do
•     What limits are in place
•     How to reverse mistakes
•     Who is accountable when something goes wrong

This requires infrastructure designed for:

•     Identity verification and delegated authority management
•     Tokenization and secure credential handling
•     Policy-based transaction controls
•     Monitoring, logging and end-to-end auditability

Trust is not a feature. It is an architectural outcome. In Canadian commerce, where consumer expectations around privacy and financial integrity are high, this is not aspirational language. It is a regulatory and operational baseline. Trust is what turns agentic commerce from a novelty into a repeatable, scalable customer experience.

What should Canadian businesses consider as they prepare?

For Canadian businesses, agentic commerce presents a meaningful opportunity if approached deliberately. Here are the key areas to start thinking about:

Customer experience readiness. Build clear customer controls such as spend limits, preferred brands and substitution rules. Ensure transparent notifications and easy-to-use dispute and refund paths. In an agentic world, the support journey will matter as much as the buying journey.

Data sovereignty. Canadian businesses should confirm that agentic transaction data, including agent decision logs and consumer delegation records, remains within Canadian jurisdiction, consistent with PIPEDA obligations and the evolving Consumer-Driven Banking (also known as Open Banking) framework.

Regulatory alignment. The Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) is now fully in force, with the Bank of Canada actively supervising registered payment service providers and enforcing compliance. Agentic payments will likely be subject to these requirements, which include operational risk frameworks, safeguarding of end-user funds and incident reporting. Businesses and their payment partners should ensure compliance planning accounts for agent-driven transaction models.

Operational readiness. Systems and teams must be prepared for automated decision-making. This includes exception handling when agents act outside expected parameters, audit trails that satisfy both internal governance and regulatory review, and customer-facing transparency about what agents are authorized to do.

Platform strategy. Canadian businesses should avoid locking into closed or proprietary agent ecosystems. Open-standard connectors, such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which serve as the "plumbing" that enables AI agents to securely connect to and transact with business systems, should be the foundation of a platform strategy. MCP-based integrations preserve flexibility and reduce switching costs as the landscape matures.

Canada’s commerce environment rewards reliability. Agentic systems must earn trust through consistent, predictable operation. They must also be auditable when questions arise. Reliability is a customer promise. And in an agentic world, customers will judge brands by how well they handle exceptions, not just how quickly purchases are made.

How Moneris is building for what comes next

At Moneris, our focus is not on chasing novelty but on enabling innovation responsibly. We were Canada’s first Interac Online processor (and now with Konek), the first to deploy EMV chip technology at the point of sale and the first to offer mobile debit POS. Each of these milestones was built on infrastructure that prioritized stability and trust, not just capability.

That same approach applies to agentic commerce. As agentic models evolve, Moneris is focused on making sure Canadian businesses can participate confidently, without added complexity or loss of control. Whether it is reaching customers through new AI-powered channels, protecting the checkout experience or staying flexible as the landscape shifts, the goal is the same: help businesses be ready when their customers start buying in new ways.

•     Show up where customers are buying, including through AI-powered platforms and agent ecosystems, without needing to rebuild existing systems or manage new integrations on their own
•     Stay in control of the customer relationship by preserving how businesses manage checkout, fulfillment and service recovery, even when an AI agent initiates the transaction
•     Maintain flexibility and choice through support for open standards that let businesses participate across agent platforms without being locked into a single ecosystem
•     Move at their own pace with the confidence that the commerce infrastructure behind them is secure, reliable and built to adapt as agentic models mature

Our role is to help Canadian businesses prepare responsibly, at their own pace. Agentic commerce is a new discovery and demand channel. It is not something businesses need to rush into. It is about making sure they are ready when customers begin buying in new ways.

Agentic commerce will evolve rapidly. The infrastructure supporting it must be robust enough to support that evolution, not rebuilt every time the landscape shifts. Because when the experience changes overnight, customers still expect it to just work.

The bottom line

Agentic commerce is already emerging across industries, digital marketplaces and enterprise procurement and redefining how customers discover, decide and buy. AI shopping agents are live on major consumer platforms. Agent-to-agent commerce, with no human in the loop, is advancing quickly.

Long-term success will not be determined by who builds the smartest agent. It will be determined by who earns customer trust and delivers the most reliable, transparent and controllable experience at every step of the journey.

For Canadian businesses, the message is straightforward: the time to prepare is now so you remain visible, trusted and in control as your customers’ buying behaviour shifts.