Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research's latest report indicates that AI agents will reshape the consumer shopping chain, transitioning from users actively searching, comparing prices, and placing orders to AI agents understanding needs, screening products, and triggering payments. The battleground for the value chain will shift from "page traffic" to "capturing and executing purchase intent," with future value increasingly following consumer intent. The report anticipates this evolution will last three to five years or more, impacting multiple industries such as e-commerce, digital advertising, payments, identity verification, anti-fraud, and cybersecurity.

Goldman Sachs believes that winners will be determined by distribution capabilities, consumer trust, merchant participation, transaction infrastructure, and the ability to capture commercial intent. Low-risk, low-complexity categories such as paper products and cleaning supplies will be the first to be taken over by AI agents, with approximately $2.6 trillion in U.S. consumer spending falling into these high-probability categories. The advertising model will also shift from purchasing "exposure" or "conversions" to purchasing "selection by an agent." Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon are considered to be well-positioned in this transformation. Walmart's AI assistant, Sparky, has already shown significant user growth and increased order value. Payment networks and identity anti-fraud fields will also be restructured accordingly, requiring risk control logic to shift from "determining if a person is human-like" to "determining if an agent is registered, authorized, and compliant with transactions."