As per the Reuters report, British retailer John Lewis reported that searches originating from AI agents jumped to 2.5% this year, up from just 0.3% a year ago. Major banks around the world including NatWest, Bank of America, ING, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and New Zealand’s ASB Bank have issued a joint warning that AI-powered shopping bots could expose consumers to scams, fraud, and data-privacy breaches, as reported by Reuters.
They are not sure whether they will be protected or who they will need to go to if things go wrong,” said Bank of America. The warning from the banks comes as tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are increasingly promoting AI agents as shopping tools, whereas retailers race to influence chatbot recommendations. “They are concerned that AI agents may buy the wrong thing or spend too much – or even worse, lose their money to scams and fraud.
In a new report, the banking coalition acknowledged that customers are genuinely enthusiastic about the potential of AI-driven shopping and eager to adopt it. But the report was equally clear that adoption is outpacing both industry standards and consumer protections, leaving a meaningful trust gap between what AI agents promise and what safeguards currently exist. The report noted that consumers remain unsure whether AI will actually act in their best interests, worrying that AI agents could buy the wrong item, overspend, or — in the worst case — lose their money to scams and fraud altogether, with little clarity on whether they’d be protected or who to turn to if something goes wrong. Specific risks flagged in the report include AI agents requesting and directly entering customers’ card details into websites without adequate oversight, as well as agents potentially steering shoppers toward payment methods that offer weaker fraud protections than more secure alternatives. The coalition plans to bring a set of proposals to policymakers, including mandatory disclosure whenever an AI agent is involved in a transaction, greater transparency into how these agents actually make purchasing decisions, and stronger safeguards around customer data protection. The report also argued that both consumers and merchants should retain the freedom to choose which AI-powered e-commerce services they use, and called for different AI shopping systems to be interoperable with one another — rather than locking users into a single ecosystem’s tools. To mitigate risks, banks plan to discuss proposals with policymakers, including: * Mandatory disclosure when an AI agent is involved in a transaction. * Greater transparency on how AI agents make decisions. * Stronger safeguards to protect customer data. * Ensuring consumers and merchants can freely choose which AI-powered services to use. * Interoperability across different AI commerce systems. Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.