IGD calls on retailers to ‘act now’ before agentic AI rewrites how people shop

The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) has urged retailers and suppliers to “prepare now” before agentic AI “rewrites how people shop”.

New analysis from the organisation shows that agentic AI can already automate basket‑building and replenishment; compare prices and availability across multiple retailers; optimise purchases for budget, health, and sustainability goals; and complete checkout without shopper intervention.

According to a new research report by the Institute, the US market is already seeing agentic AI solutions move from pilot to practice, including autonomous shopping assistants, end-to-end automated purchase flows, and personalised meal-planning agents.

While AI utilisation remains low in the UK, with just three per cent of UK shoppers currently using AI tools for grocery shopping, the IGD warned that adoption could “accelerate rapidly” once trust is established, following a similar pattern to online grocery and in‑home delivery services.

IGD’s research has also found wide variance in expert predictions on how soon agentic AI will become mainstream in the UK, with some claiming it will be mass market by the end of this year.

The IGD said that unlike other retail sectors, food and grocery shopping is “highly habitual and repetitive”, making it particularly suited to automation.

“Retailers and supplier products risk becoming invisible when AI agents build baskets,” commented Toby Pickard, retail futures senior partner, IGD. “Impulse, emotion, and human discovery are redundant when it is machine visibility, not shelf visibility, that shapes choice.”

He added that people “consistently underestimate” the long-term impact of transformative technologies

“Agentic AI won’t change everything overnight, but once shoppers trust it, convenience becomes the accelerator and habit becomes the lock‑in,” he continued.

Pickard said that businesses that start preparing now will help shape how “intelligent shopping scales” while those who wait may find that the future has “already been decided without them.”

Last month, a report from the Information Commissioner’s Office said that agentic commerce could pave the way for personal shopping ‘AI-gents’ in the next five years.

The public body explained that AI-powered agents will anticipate shopping needs and make proactive purchases based on learned and defined preferences or behaviours, along with knowledge of upcoming plans, rather than needing specific prompts.

The organisation said at the time that this means the technology could soon “check personal bank accounts” to ensure a purchase is within monthly budget, assess how it will affect other spending plans, schedule purchases around seasonal sale events such as the January sales and even negotiate a price directly with sellers.

The IGD’s report is announced amidst a wave of developments in the technology, with retailers including Coach, Kate Spade, and URBN recently rolling out Stripe’s newly launched suite of agentic commerce solutions.

In December last year, Visa also partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable developers and enterprises to deploy agentic AI commerce systems.