The New Gatekeepers of Commerce: AI Agents and the Protocol That Connects Them

Search engines have long been the gatekeepers of online shopping, and entire strategies were built around keywords, rankings, and algorithms. But the next wave of digital behavior isn’t driven by what search decides— it’s driven by what people ask. AI agents are the new gatekeepers.

Hundreds of millions of consumers now turn to AI agents like OpenAI's ChatGPT for advice, recommendations, and product research with nearly half using these platforms in their earliest buying stages. These systems don’t just point to information anymore, they interpret intent, weigh options, and increasingly complete the purchase. The agentic commerce wave is here, and the launch of the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) from OpenAI and Stripe is a clear signal that this isn’t hype. It’s happening.

Orium is a launch partner for Stripe and OpenAI's ACP. Whether you need a high-level overview for leadership alignment or a deep-dive strategy session, we can help you understand where you stand today, what to prioritize, and how to compete with confidence in the agentic era. Request your 30-minute executive briefings and 1-day strategic intensives.

The evidence for this shift is already clear. ChatGPT now reaches over 700 million users a week and 47% of consumers now say they’re likely to use generative AI tools to research purchases. Meanwhile, generative AI and agentic interfaces are already eroding traditional search click volume: AI overviews are linked with 15–64% drops in organic traffic, depending on industry and query type.

What that looks like in action is jarring: If a customer asks an agent, “What’s the best compact SUV with great mileage under $40,000?” and your product data isn’t structured for AEO/GEO, you may never appear, even if you have the perfect model.

For enterprises, the implication is blunt: if your brand isn’t structured so agents can interpret it, you’re effectively invisible in a channel already shaping customer intent.

Agentic commerce isn’t just another tool. It’s a new operating model for how buying happens online. In this world, AI agents don’t just point people to options; they handle discovery, evaluation, and even the transaction itself.

That makes it less about a single platform and more about how your commerce data, content, and payments are structured so agents can understand and act on them. Traditional ecommerce relied on search engines to deliver a page of results. Agentic commerce depends on systems that deliver synthesized recommendations and move directly into action.

That shift requires new disciplines, both focused on one critical outcome: making sure your brand and products show up in an agent’s response, not just in a list of links:

• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Making sure your brand appears in an agent’s synthesized “best answer.”
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Structuring your catalog and content so it can be drawn into generated responses and purchase flows. Think of it this way: in SEO you fought for page one. In AEO/GEO, there is no page two. Either the agent chooses you, or it doesn’t.

The ACP comes in. Built by OpenAI and Stripe, it’s an open standard created to make agent-driven buying real at scale. With ACP, merchants can connect once and sell across multiple agent ecosystems, instead of stitching together custom integrations agent by agent.

At its core, ACP simplifies how commerce systems and AI platforms talk to each other. It ensures your products, catalogs, and payments are interpretable by agents so your brand can be transactable wherever customers are asking.

Stripe brings unmatched credibility to the effort. The company processes more than $1.4 trillion in annual payment volume and runs fraud detection that rapidly evaluates over a thousand signals. ACP extends that reliability into a new layer built specifically for AI-driven discovery and transactions.

The result is a practical foundation for agentic commerce— one that is interoperable, scalable, and brand-safe.

The rise of agentic commerce goes beyond a technology shift. This is a board-level conversation. Digital leaders now face a new set of questions that will define competitiveness in the next era:

• Revenue Impact: Are your products surfacing in AI-driven engines where customers now begin their buying journeys? If not, you’re already ceding visibility and mindshare to competitors who are agent-ready.
• Investment Readiness: How compatible is your commerce stack with the Agentic Commerce Protocol, and what will it take to close the gaps? Legacy systems and fragmented data models are already creating blind spots for agents.
• Risk Exposure: Where could bad data, inconsistent pricing, or fulfillment delays damage trust when mediated by an agent? In an environment where agents amplify expectations, small breakdowns can have outsized impact.
• Growth Plan: What steps should we prioritize now to secure early wins and what’s the long-term roadmap? Early adopters that pair near-term ROI with a strategic roadmap will shape the standards of tomorrow.

These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re the starting point for every enterprise deciding how to compete in the agentic era. Brands that can answer them with clarity will move ahead. Those that can’t will get left behind.

Turning these questions into action begins with readiness. Start by auditing product and policy data for structure, accuracy, and completeness. Ensure your commerce, content, and payment systems can connect through composable APIs that align with ACP specifications. Align fraud prevention, refund, and fulfillment processes with the expectations of real-time, agent-mediated checkout.

Success in this era won’t be measured by keyword rankings—it will be measured by visibility inside agent ecosystems, conversion rates from AI-driven recommendations, and trust earned after the transaction. Readiness is both a competitive advantage and a form of protection. The better your systems communicate with agents, the more reliably they can represent your brand and your products

The discovery landscape is shifting faster than most brands realize. AI agents are already influencing how consumers form preferences, evaluate options, and complete purchases. Brands that adapt early will define how agents interpret their categories, set expectations for product quality, and shape customer journeys. Those that wait will be optimized out of the conversation before they even know it’s happening.

The winners of the next era of commerce will not be the loudest or the biggest, but the ones that are easiest for agents to understand, trust, and transact with. The Agentic Commerce Protocol provides the bridge. Now it is up to every digital and ecommerce leader to ensure their brand is ready to cross it.