Shopify opens its catalog up to more AI agents

More AI agents will soon be able to browse and purchase from Shopify listings, marking an expansion of the company’s agentic commerce ambitions. Shopify announced Tuesday it will let shoppers configure their AI agents to purchase products on their behalf, giving more agents access to over a billion listings in Shopify’s catalog. (The catalog consists of both items on and off Shopify storefronts.) In September, Shopify announced it was partnering with Meta to allow its Muse agent to browse and purchase items on a human’s behalf; now, shoppers can use any agent without a partnership integration. To set up the feature, customers connect an agent with their account on Shop, a Shopify-owned platform that consolidates orders, tracks packages, and recommends products. Like the Muse partnership, customers use the one-click Shop Pay feature to check out within the conversation with the agent. Orders placed through the agent are funneled back to the Shop app. Shopify is marketing the feature as a “personal shopper” that humans can give rules to, like setting budget guardrails or only displaying products with fast shipping. Buyers must approve each purchase. E-commerce has become one of the battlegrounds in the era of AI — it’s no coincidence that many demos of agentic tools end with a transaction, whether it’s buying clothing, booking a flight, or ordering takeout on a human’s behalf. The tech industry, including big commerce players like Google and Amazon, are investing in AI-driven shopping tools where the end goal is an “agent” purchasing things for a human user. It’s also the basis of an ongoing fight between Amazon and AI companies like Perplexity — and more recently, Meta’s Muse — over whether agents should be able to shop on a customer’s behalf.