New Delhi, Jan. 10 -- Online commerce is undergoing a quiet but fundamental shift. The buyer is no longer always human.

A new model - agentic commerce - is emerging, in which AI agents act on behalf of individuals and organizations to research options, evaluate trade-offs, negotiate terms, and complete transactions. These systems do not recommend. They decide.

"E-commerce digitized the storefront. Agentic commerce digitizes the decision," says Vineeth, a manager at Bain & Company. "Once intent is delegated to an agent, buying stops being an activity and becomes a background process."

Agentic commerce is not about chatbots or smarter recommendations. It is about autonomous economic agents operating within defined objectives and constrai...