AI seems to be able to do nearly anything these day—except understand the mind of the modern shopper.
To find out, Visa put leading AI models to the test. The AI must correctly identify the needs of a consumer based on a conversation. If nothing fits the customer’s requirements, then the AI should opt not to buy.
“About one-in-two (54 percent) of failed runs still ended in the AI deciding to buy. Either the AI recommended a purchase that did not meet the customer’s requirements, or it failed to uncover all the customer’s requirements,” Visa said in a statement on Thursday.
The global digital payments firm developed a publicly available test called the Agentic Commerce Benchmark, which subjects leading AI models to realistic buying challenges to see how they would understand and act on behalf of a shopper. It seeks to answer a seemingly simple question: Can an AI model be trusted to make the right call when it comes to shopping?
Turns out, it’s not an easy question to answer, in part because even shoppers don’t always know exactly what they want. From where to eat to which clothes to try on, shopping more often starts with an exploration of possibilities rather than a clear directive. It’s this level of uncertainty that makes the matter complicated, and this is the situation that leading AI models must contend with.
In one scenario cited by Visa , a customer asks the AI for help in picking a new television. A relative recommended Samsung.
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