The agentic shopper is running the cart. Can you keep up?

Southeast Asia’s eCommerce engine continues to roar, yet card abandonment rates continue to soar.

While the region’s internet economy is set to hit US$330 billion by 2025, led by Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, Asia Pacific is still recording some of the world’s highest cart abandonment rates, exceeding 75% to 87%, according to the US Department of Commerce. This is well above the global benchmark of 70%.

For marketers, this signals a breaking point. The old funnel of search, click, and convert is collapsing under consumer impatience and information overload.

Enter the agentic shopper.

Today, as conversations around generative AI continue to grow, more and more consumers are getting comfortable in turning to agentic AI to ease any and all friction points in their lives – be it at discovery or at purchase. And shopping has always been a rather friction-filled activity, say consumers globally.

In fact, according to VML’s “Future Shopper 2025” report, 45% of global shoppers often abandon purchases due to frustrating online experiences, while half feel brands don’t understand their needs. This means brands must embrace the idea of the agentic shopper to stay relevant, and to truly understand their customers, while relieving them of their pain points in this next commerce wave.

But what exactly is the agentic shopper?

Well, the agentic shopper represents the next evolution of customer empowerment – a consumer who entrusts discovery, comparison and even purchase decisions to intelligent digital agents. These AI-powered assistants interpret intent, recall context, and act on the user’s behalf.

Unlike traditional shoppers who browse and click, agentic shoppers articulate their needs conversationally and expect systems to anticipate, negotiate, and execute. This means the shopping journey will no longer unfold as a series of manual steps, but as a dialogue orchestrated by autonomous systems aligned with human intent, not just human input.

How are agentic shoppers changing the conversational journeys?

Agentic commerce marks a shift from retrieval to resolution. Instead of searching, scrolling, and restarting, shoppers now express intent. For example, one might say: “Find me a laptop that’s great for photo editing and under SG$2,000” and expect the system to deliver tailored recommendations, clarify trade-offs, and complete the purchase seamlessly.

This journey typically unfolds in three phases: Discover, explore, and decide. In the “discover” phase, shoppers use natural language to express intent, and AI surfaces both organic and sponsored answers that match user intent. In the “explore” stage, immersive, conversational product comparisons such as Copilot Shopping raise confidence and reduce friction. And in the “decide”, AI-powered brand agents take over within retailer sites, preserving context so shoppers don’t have to start over.

These brand agents act as always-on – brand-trained assistants that can remember, recommend and resolve, functioning similar to empathetic digital salespeople, but available around the clock.

The impact is measurable. Microsoft’s first-party data shows that customer journeys featuring ads in Copilot have around 40% fewer touchpoints per conversation than organic chat responses, indicating a shorter path to purchase. Within 30 minutes of a Copilot exposure, consumers are 53% more likely to make a purchase, a figure that climbs to +194% for chats showing clear shopping intent.

In other words, conversational ads don’t just capture attention, they convert intent into action.

Alexander Del Rossa, a premium sleepwear retailer, saw over three times higher conversion rates in brand agent-assisted sessions compared to unassisted sessions.

What else is leading to the rise of the agentic shopper?

The need for hyper-personalisation certainly plays a part. Globally, 71% of consumers expect brands to deliver personalised interactions, and 76% say they get frustrated when that doesn’t happen, according to McKinsey’s 2025 insights on the next frontier of personalised marketing.

Research from APAC CIOOutlook also found that 91% of consumers say personalised experiences significantly increase brand loyalty, and that they are willing to spend 24% more with brands that deliver them. This appetite for tailored, intelligent engagement, is accelerating as Southeast Asia becomes a hub for AI innovation and acceptance.

In Asia Pacific, the stakes are even higher. Consumers in the region are already fluent in chat apps, social commerce and super-app ecosystems, demanding immediacy, personalisation, and seamlessness at every touchpoint. This is especially since more than 88% of the region’s internet users go online via smartphones, and most eCommerce transactions already originate on mobile.

These habits have conditioned consumers to expect immediacy, conversational interfaces, and seamless end-to-end journeys in a single thread.

As a result, the region’s shoppers are naturally primed for the agentic era where AI agents can understand intent, respond contextually, and resolve needs in real time. Agentic shoppers can truly ease pain points for consumers, while making them feel seen and heard.

What’s next for search?

According to a Forrester report, conversational AI-driven search is accelerating at double-digit rates, adding a new layer to how people discover information.

While traditional search remains a core behaviour, users are increasingly complementing it with interactive, AI-powered experiences, that anticipate their needs and guide them to a resolution.

Generative search has evolved from a simple retrieval to a system that fuses generation, intelligent sourcing, and contextual reasoning – delivering responses that are accurate, relevant, and personalised to intent. This allows users to move seamlessly from awareness to a decision in a single conversational thread, collapsing multiple stages into one fluid interaction.

For the agentic shopper, this shift is transformative. Search is no longer a passive query: it becomes a dialogue where systems remember context, resolve trade-offs, and proactively suggest next steps. Consumers increasingly expect digital partners – assistants that guide, clarify, and anticipate needs.

For a brand, the implications are profound. Visibility is no longer about keyword rankings, but about being relevant, structured, and AI-readable so you can naturally integrate it into conversations. Content must be designed to deliver value, context, and clarity – and be discoverable and ready to interact with AI systems in real time.

Conversational search also changes the rhythm of engagement. Linear funnels will give way to iterative, back-and-forth dialogues, where users explore, refine, and act within a single session. For marketers, this demands a mindset shift from pushing information to facilitating interactions and from chasing clicks to shaping intent.

And with Microsoft’s newest retail and commerce updates announced at CES 2026, including Copilot Checkout and brand agents, the agentic shopper era is no longer theoretical. It’s already here.

Brands that embrace this shift can participate in the agentic shopper’s journey not by shouting louder, but by being smarter, more contextually aware, and genuinely helpful at the moment it matters.

“Agentic commerce is transforming how consumers discover, decide, and purchase. Shifting from the way we used to search to a more conversational, personalised, and an agentic way of buying,” said Adam Goodman, director, AI in advertising APAC, Microsoft.

“In APAC we’re helping brands stay visible and valuable in this new journey. We are exploring how merchants appear in Copilot, and building brand agents that don’t just inform, but improve customer experiences while delivering increased value.”

The future of shopping in Southeast Asia will favour those who can meet consumers not just where they are, but where they are thinking, deciding, and acting. Because in the age of the agentic shopper, the conversation is the conversion.

This article was produced in partnership with Microsoft Advertising APAC.

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