What: Mastercard's global survey reveals a generational split in AI shopping trust: 27% of teens say they'd let a fully AI-run assistant shop for them, versus 16% of parents, with nearly a third of teens trusting AI recommendations over a friend's.

Why it is important: As retailers race to build the "agent-ready" platforms agentic commerce demands, Mastercard's data suggests the harder barrier — consumer trust — is dissolving fastest exactly where it matters most for long-term customer relationships: with teens.

Mastercard's survey of 26,000 parents and teens points to a generational shift in AI-assisted purchasing. Some 27% of teens say they're likely to use a fully AI-run shopping assistant that recommends, selects and buys on their behalf, versus just 16% of parents. Nearly a third of teens trust AI product recommendations over a friend's, and 23% trust AI advice over their own parents' guidance. The generational gap extends to expectations: two-thirds of parents expect AI shopping to define their children's generation, but only 5% expect the same for their own. Teens are also heavier users of AI for everyday research, with 62% turning to it monthly versus 49% of parents.

"AI increasingly helps people decide what to buy; tomorrow it will help do the purchasing for them too," said Brice van de Walle, Mastercard's EVP of core payments Europe. Retailers are already building for this shift: Home Depot has extended its Magic Apron assistant with local store data, Williams-Sonoma is deploying AI across discovery and checkout, and Target has added AI-powered photo search and review tools. KPMG separately found over half of retailers spend $50 million or more annually on digital technology, though 48% cite technical debt as a barrier to further investment.

IADS Notes:  Mastercard's findings echo a pattern already documented at the retailer level. Macy's introduction of its "Ask Macy's" assistant drove users to spend nearly 400% more than non-users (Fortune, March 2026), and Falabella's 60% increase in technology investment has generated more than $78 million in AI-referred sales and over 20% logistics efficiency gains (Perú Retail, September 2026), showing that AI spend is already converting into measurable revenue rather than experimental cost. The infrastructure shift behind teens' growing appetite for a fully autonomous shopping agent is also under way, as agentic commerce pushes retailers to build "agent-ready" platforms capable of handling product search, comparison and purchase decisions on shoppers' behalf (Journal du Net, August 2026). Mainstream adoption nonetheless still hinges on the generational trust gap the survey highlights: earlier reporting found that consumer trust and satisfaction with existing shopping habits remain the primary barriers keeping AI shopping agents from going fully mainstream (BoF, October 2025).

Teens start to trust AI recommendations more than friends, parents