Seismic shift.
The term originally described the drastic effects of a major earthquake and stems from “seismos,” the Greek word for shaking.
Figuratively, however, the phrase seismic shift can refer to any sudden and dramatic change, and tech industry analysts believe there’s going to be a whole lot of shaking going on with the growth of agentic AI.
Agentic AI refers to advanced artificial systems that operate autonomously, setting goals, planning, and executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention.
In contrast, a chatbot is primarily reactive, following scripts or generating text for predefined conversational tasks with limited ability to act independently or learn beyond its programming.
“AI agents can communicate with each other and other software systems to automate existing business processes,” according to Amazon Web Services, the e-commerce and entertainment giant.
“They learn from their environment and adapt to changing conditions, enabling them to perform sophisticated workflows with accuracy.”
AWS said that agentic AI is designed to collaborate with humans and with other agentic AI systems.
Amazon Web Services says AI agents adapt to changing conditions.
Businesses must adapt to AI agents
“AI agents work as part of a broader team,” the company said. “They can understand shared goals, interpret human intent, and coordinate actions accordingly. They work well in settings that require human oversight or decision-making by considering inputs from multiple sources.”
Amazon’s Rufus, which launched on Feb. 1, 2024, is an AI-powered shopping assistant that uses generative and agentic AI to provide personalized product recommendations and answer shopping-related questions.
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A recent report by McKinsey said that Agentic AI “promises to radically remake the entire shopping experience.”
“Agentic commerce—shopping powered by AI agents acting on our behalf—represents a seismic shift in the marketplace,” the consulting firm said. “This isn’t just an evolution of e-commerce. It’s a rethinking of shopping itself.”
There’s some serious money behind this radical overhaul.
By 2030, McKinsey said, the business-to-consumer retail market alone could see up to $1 trillion in orchestrated revenue from agentic commerce, with global projections reaching as high as $3 trillion to $5 trillion.
“This trend will have the breadth of impact of prior web and mobile-commerce revolutions,” the firm said, “but it can move even faster since agents can traverse the same digital paths to purchase as humans, allowing them to ‘ride on the rails’ laid down by these prior revolutions.”
McKinsey said all kinds of businesses—brands, retailers, marketplaces, logistics and commerce services providers, and payments players—”will need to adapt to the new paradigm and successfully navigate the challenges of trust, risk, and innovation.”
More consumers are using AI agents
Consumer behavior is already beginning to change, the firm said, citing research that found 44% of users who have tried AI-powered search say that it has become their “primary and preferred” source for internet searching, compared with 31% who prefer using traditional search.
Boston Consulting Group said that in the era of agentic commerce, “a retailer’s most valuable customer might not be a human.”
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The firm said that AI agents—embedded in platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini—are increasingly influencing consumers’ decisions, redefining how they discover, evaluate, and purchase products online.
“The rise of AI shopping agents represents a seismic shift in how commerce will be conducted on a global scale—and it’s already underway,” BCG said.
More than half of consumers anticipate using AI assistants for shopping by the end of 2025, according to Adobe, the firm said.
Boston Consulting said that this is more than just a story of adoption, as customers arriving through AI agents are 10% more engaged than traditional visitors, reaching retailers further down the sales funnel with a stronger intent to purchase.
“Retailers must fight to reclaim relevance—by asserting their presence within AI ecosystems, launching proprietary agents that showcase their brand’s unique edge,” the firm said, “and building the technical and organizational foundations to operate at AI speed and scale.”
Tech heavyweights including Anthropic, AWS, Google (GOOGL), Microsoft, (MSFT) and IBM (IBM) are beginning to align around shared standards for AI agents, according to CIO magazine.
The Agentic AI Foundation is looking to develop common protocols for how agents access data and interact with business systems.
“We are seeing AI enter a new phase, as conversational systems shift to autonomous agents that can work together,” Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said in a statement.
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