The idea of bots buying on behalf of shoppers worries some ecommerce store owners, not because they fear AI, but because it shifts the customer relationship into one they cannot see, understand, or influence. Agentic commerce systems can interpret buying intent, evaluate alternatives, recommend products, assemble carts, and potentially complete purchases. Merchants still own inventory and fulfillment, but a portion of the relationship shifts to an intermediary AI. Rather than converting shoppers directly onsite, sellers may persuade the system, which, in turn, makes recommendations to or purchases for the customer. Universal Cart Consider, for example, Google’s proposed Universal Cart, announced at I/O 2026. The cart would allow shoppers to compare and purchase products from many retailers across Google Search and eventually even YouTube and Gmail. Google would “own” the cart throughout the product discovery, comparison, and checkout.…