{
  "dataset": "glossary",
  "record": {
    "id": "agent-as-buyer",
    "term": "Agent-as-Buyer",
    "category": "commerce",
    "short_def": "The pattern where an AI agent, not a human, searches, evaluates and completes a purchase on the user's behalf.",
    "long_def": "Agent-as-buyer is the demand side of agentic commerce: the agent compares options, makes the decision and transacts, with the human authorizing scope in advance. It changes optimization targets — product data must be machine-parseable, APIs and structured feeds matter more than visual merchandising, and checkout must accept protocols like ACP, AP2 and x402. McKinsey has projected agentic commerce could reach $1 trillion in US retail by 2030.",
    "see_also": [
      "agentic-commerce",
      "acp",
      "agentic-seo"
    ],
    "etymology_origin": {
      "value": null,
      "verify_status": "verify-against-primary-at-build",
      "source_hint": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agentic_commerce — 'agent-as-buyer' is a descriptive pattern term within agentic commerce, with no single coiner; the parent category 'agentic commerce' has a Wikipedia entry"
    },
    "related_to": [
      "agentic-commerce",
      "acp",
      "ap2",
      "agentic-seo",
      "agent-identity"
    ],
    "contrast_with": "Unlike agentic commerce as a whole, which spans buying and selling, agent-as-buyer names specifically the demand-side actor — the purchasing agent whose needs reshape product data, feeds and checkout toward machine-readability.",
    "example": "In an agent-as-buyer flow, a shopping agent compares products and completes checkout via a protocol like ACP; McKinsey has projected agentic commerce could reach $1 trillion in US retail by 2030.",
    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agentic_commerce",
    "status": "emerging",
    "why_it_matters": "Agent-as-buyer is why a merchant must expose machine-readable product data and an agent-acceptable checkout; the buyer it must win over is increasingly software, not a human shopper.",
    "sameAs": [
      "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agentic_commerce"
    ],
    "bridge_entity": "protocols/payments/acp",
    "last_verified": "2026-06-15",
    "md_twin": "/glossary/agent-as-buyer.md"
  }
}