Who Clicked “Buy”? Identity, Authorization, and Trust in Agentic Commerce
About this session
AI is changing online shopping from a human-driven experience into an increasingly agent-driven one. Instead of searching, comparing, and clicking “Buy” ourselves, AI agents can discover products, evaluate options, apply preferences, interact with merchants, and potentially complete purchases on our behalf.
That creates a deceptively simple question: Who actually clicked “Buy”?
Was it the customer, an authorized AI agent acting for the customer, or a compromised or manipulated agent? And even if the agent’s identity is known, how does a retailer determine what that agent was actually authorized to do?
This is not only a challenge for AI builders, retailers, or security teams. It matters to everyone who shops online. As AI assistants move from recommending products to taking actions, consumers need confidence that an agent cannot exceed their intent, merchants need confidence that transactions are legitimate, and platforms need mechanisms to establish identity, authorization, consent, and accountability.
This session explores the emerging trust boundary between human, AI agent, merchant, and transaction. Through a relatable online-shopping journey, we will examine practical patterns for delegated authorization, scoped permissions, transaction and spending limits, step-up verification for sensitive actions, human-in-the-loop approvals, agent identity, observability, and auditable decision trails.
We will also explore what happens when things go wrong: an agent misunderstands intent, receives manipulated instructions, operates with excessive permissions, or attempts a purchase the customer never expected.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for answering three critical questions before an AI agent is allowed to transact: Who is acting? What are they authorized to do? And when should the human be brought back into the loop?
As AI moves from “help me shop” to “shop for me,” establishing identity and trust may become one of the most important foundations of AI-powered commerce.
Speaker
Key takeaways
- Understand the new identity challenge in agentic commerce — Learn how online commerce changes when an AI agent, rather than the customer, searches, decides, and transacts on the customer’s behalf.
- Distinguish identity from authority — Understand why knowing who the customer or agent is does not automatically establish what the agent is authorized to buy, spend, or approve.
- Apply practical trust controls — Explore delegated authorization, scoped permissions, spending limits, step-up verification, human-in-the-loop approvals, and auditable agent actions.