Agentic commerce won’t start with shopping - Noah Levine, (Partner, a16z)

Agentic commerce represents a fundamental shift in how transactions occur, moving from traditional user-facing storefronts to automated endpoints where AI agents execute tasks on behalf of users. This transition, particularly within developer tooling, enables small, agile teams to build and monetize products without the friction of enterprise-level onboarding. While consumer-facing e-commerce remains largely unchanged in the near term, the infrastructure of money movement is evolving. Card networks are positioning themselves as essential trust layers, while stablecoins offer a programmable, efficient alternative for global settlement. As AI agents become the default buyers, the focus shifts toward optimizing APIs and documentation rather than traditional branding. Ultimately, this evolution democratizes access to complex financial services, though widespread adoption faces hurdles related to trust, liability, and deeply ingrained consumer habits.