Not every customer who visits your site is human — and many of them aren’t fraudsters, either. AI agents are searching, selecting, and purchasing on behalf of real people, compressing decisions into seconds and rewriting the definition of “frictionless.”
To succeed in this new landscape, leaders must stay curious, ask forward-looking questions, and proactively adapt teams and systems to remain competitive as AI-driven behaviors accelerate.
When the Shopper Isn’t a Person or a Fraudster
An AI assistant finds the best headphone deal, applies promo codes, and checks out — all while the customer walks their dog.
That’s not fraud. It’s agentic AI, and it’s here. Tools like OpenAI’s Operator and Claude Code can browse, fill out forms, navigate sites, and execute tasks and purchases end-to-end.
These agents are changing who’s in control, compressing buying journeys, creating a disintermediation of data, and redefining customer loyalty. For leaders, the implications are clear: this isn’t just a fraud or payments issue. It’s a brand trust, revenue, and scalability challenge.
The right response isn’t to panic — it’s to probe. Leaders who come out ahead will be the ones asking sharper, cross-functional questions now to uncover gaps and set a shared agenda.
Your Agentic AI Readiness Audit
Agentic AI changes the profile of your customers, their buying journeys, and the trust signals you can rely on. You’ve seen what’s possible — now it’s time to find out how ready you are.
Use these questions as your audit to spot unseen risks, align priorities across teams, and prepare your organization.
Fraud & Identity
Are our risk systems built for agentic behavior? Or are they tuned for humans?
- AI agents shop faster, skip familiar “human” signals, and move through checkout without hesitation. Legacy fraud models built on human patterns risk flagging these behaviors as suspicious.
- Example: A shopper’s AI agent fills a cart and completes payment in four seconds but your rules see “machine speed” and blocks it.
Can we distinguish helpful automation from abuse?
- Fraudsters mimic AI-like patterns to bypass controls. Without advanced identity intelligence, a trusted agent and a malicious bot can look identical.
- Example: An operator bot buys a limited-edition sneaker the moment it drops and so does a fraud ring’s script, using the same timing and click path.
Payments & Loyalty
Can our systems recognize and support legitimate agent-led transactions?
- Stored credentials, one-click checkout, and automated renewals can look “too fast” to outdated payment flows.
- Example: A shopper’s travel-planning AI books flights and hotels across sites in seconds and your processor flags it as card testing.
What happens when agents shop across platforms? Do we lose continuity?
- Disconnected systems can fracture your customer view, hurting both risk decisions and personalization and limiting the consumer data you get back in return.
- Example: An AI agent purchases from three different regional sites on behalf of the same customer and your systems see them as unrelated accounts.
Digital Experience & Strategy
Are our teams aligned on how automation shows up across the journey?
- Agentic AI blurs the lines between fraud, payments, and digital experience. Without shared understanding, teams may create conflicting controls.
- Example: Fraud removes a CAPTCHA to improve approvals for AI-led orders — but digital reintroduces it for “security,” breaking agent flows.
Is personalization logic tied to verified identity or vulnerable to spoofing?
- AI-driven experiences are only as safe as the identity signals behind them.
- Example: A spoofed agent profile triggers a VIP discount, draining promo budgets while real customers miss out.
Moving from Questions to Alignment
You don’t need to solve every challenge on day one. What you do need is shared awareness across fraud, payments, and digital teams — and a plan to turn that awareness into action.
Here are three ways to start — even one will help you move forward:
- Run a readiness workshop: Gather leaders from fraud, payments, and digital to walk through each question and surface gaps
- Map your trust touchpoints: Identify every point where an agent interacts with your systems, from sign-in to loyalty redemption
- Audit invisible blockers: Review invisible blockers in your controls so they don’t block trusted automation
The most resilient organizations learn together, move quickly, and align on a single source of truth — a pattern we’re already seeing among brands preparing for agentic AI.
The Next Move Is Yours
Agentic AI isn’t a single problem to solve — it’s the new environment your business will operate in. By asking the right questions now, you can prepare your teams, protect the trust you’ve built with your customers, and position your brand to thrive.
The future of commerce will be more automated, but relationships will decide who wins. Make sure yours are built to last.
