AI Shopping Agents Processed 120 Million Transactions In A Single Week As Agentic Commerce Moves From Theory To Checkout

AI-powered shopping agents completed more than 120 million transactions through Alipay’s AI Pay platform in a single week in February 2026, according to data cited in a new NielsenIQ report that charts the emergence of agentic commerce as a real-world phenomenon rather than a theoretical projection.

The report, titled The Commerce Revolution: Where East Meets West, draws on NielsenIQ’s consumer and retail data alongside third-party research from McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Adobe to map the gap between where AI agents are already transacting at scale and where consumer trust has yet to catch up.

McKinsey has sized the global agentic commerce opportunity at $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030. Morgan Stanley projects AI agents could drive between $190 billion and $385 billion – roughly 10 to 20 per cent – of US eCommerce by the same date.

Asia Transacting, West Still Deliberating

The report’s central finding is that the adoption of AI shopping agents is running at two speeds. In China, agents are already completing purchases at volume. Beyond the 120 million Alipay AI Pay transactions recorded in the week of 5 to 11 February 2026, the report cites market data showing Alibaba’s Qwen assistant reached 100 million monthly active users within two months of launch.

In Western markets, the picture is different. Adobe Analytics data cited in the report shows that traffic from generative AI sources to US retail websites increased by 1,200 per cent between July 2024 and February 2025. Adobe also found that visitors arriving from generative AI sources showed stronger engagement, including more pages per visit and lower bounce rates, even though conversion still trailed more established traffic sources.

But NielsenIQ’s own consumer data reveals a clear gap between AI capability and shopper willingness. Around 34 per cent of consumers use AI to research products and 23 per cent use it to summarise reviews, yet only about 8 per cent have let AI complete a purchase on their behalf.

Emilie Darolles, President of West Europe at NielsenIQ, framed the gap as the core challenge for the industry.

“While much of the West is still debating whether AI will shop for us, in parts of Asia it already is, quietly completing purchases at a scale most boardrooms haven’t registered,” she commented.

“But the real story is not just what AI can do – it’s what shoppers will allow it to do. Consumers are increasingly happy to let AI research and recommend, yet very few are ready to let it buy. The next phase of agentic commerce will be won by the brands that earn enough trust to be chosen by both the consumer and the agent.”

Influence Running Ahead Of Automation

NielsenIQ described the current state as AI reshaping the “messy middle” of the purchase journey – the research, comparison and shortlisting phases – while actual autonomous purchasing remains rare.

The implication for brands is a shift from a human-driven purchase funnel to an agent-mediated one. When an AI agent shortlists three products on behalf of a consumer, the traditional path from impression to click to cart is compressed. Brands with incomplete or machine-unreadable product data risk being excluded from that shortlist entirely.

East Proves Demand, West Builds Trust Rails

The report characterises the East-West dynamic as complementary rather than competitive. China is demonstrating the demand side of agentic commerce – agents operating at consumer scale – while Western markets are building the trust and measurement frameworks needed to make autonomous purchasing viable for both high-consideration and everyday categories.

NielsenIQ’s position is that the brands positioned to benefit are those that are preparing now: structuring product data for machine readability, establishing presence in AI consideration sets and adopting measurement approaches built for a purchasing environment where the shopper may not be human.

Report Methodology

The Commerce Revolution: Where East Meets West analyses the convergence of Eastern and Western commerce models across live commerce, social commerce, quick commerce, retail media networks and emerging agentic commerce. It draws on NielsenIQ Consumer Outlook, Retail Pulse, Digital Purchases and Omnisales data alongside third-party sources. The consumer AI-adoption figures (34 per cent researching, 23 per cent summarising reviews, 8 per cent completing purchases) are from NielsenIQ’s proprietary consumer data, while market-scale figures from Alipay, Alibaba, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Adobe are cited but not independently verified by NielsenIQ.

Last Updated on July 30, 2026 by Nick Ross