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Would people let an AI agent buy for them? What 2026 surveys say

Only 9% would let an AI agent buy on its own. 32% would if they approve the payment.

Accenture asked 25,590 people in 16 countries how far they'd let an AI agent go when shopping (January 2026). Only 9% would let it buy on its own. But 32% would let it decide what to buy, as long as they approve the payment themselves.

Most people will let an agent shop. Paying without asking is where they draw the line.

What they're afraid of

A US survey by NMI, a payments company, asked what worries people about an AI completing a purchase. Four answers came up almost equally:

  • Security and fraud: 61%
  • Spending more than they intended: 60%
  • Buying the wrong item, size, color or brand: 58%
  • Losing control over their purchases: 57%

Only the first one is about security. The other three are about the agent doing something the person didn't want, and an approval step answers all three.

Where it starts

In an American Express survey run by Teneo (2,005 adults, August), 52% would let an agent buy household essentials, groceries or other low-cost items. For electronics and appliances, the number drops to 15%.

People hand over the small purchases first, and the agent earns the rest.

If you're building an agent that buys

Read together, the numbers describe what your users need before they hand over a card:

  1. Nothing goes through until they approve. Face ID, a passkey, voice, or auto-approvals set by them, so not every coffee needs a tap.
  2. The agent never holds the card. That rule answers the fraud worry directly.
  3. A plan for when something goes wrong. If your agent buys the wrong thing, your users will come to you, so know how you'll fix it: how they stop it, who they contact, how they get their money back.
  4. Start small. Let the agent earn trust on low-cost purchases.

Agentcard exists for exactly that. With the Vault, your users save their own card once and approve each purchase inside your product, or set auto-approval rules. The agent never sees the card number, it works with any card from any country, and every purchase is insured by Sure up to $250. The Vault is free for companies up to 5,000 users.

Agents can already find the right thing to buy. The work now is making people comfortable letting them pay. Get started today.

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