How AI Agents Are Redefining the Buyer’s Journey for Marketers

Welcome to Unprompted: The AI Marketing Brief, where I cut through the noise in AI news and research to show marketers what’s happening — and why it matters for your work, your team, and your career. 

For today’s edition, we’re taking a slight detour … to the mall. AI isn’t just changing the way people research products — it’s transforming how they shop and even complete purchases.

And I can already hear you thinking: “I’m a B2B marketer. What does this have to do with me?”

Plenty. The reality is that B2B buyers are consumers first, and the experiences they enjoy in their personal lives are shaping what they expect from work-related purchases. From AI-assisted product discovery and agent-led shopping to seamless checkout and personalized offers, the same tools driving efficiency and engagement in B2C commerce are starting to influence B2B buying journeys, funnel metrics and even how we measure conversions.

If marketers want to stay ahead, we need to start thinking about agentic interactions, conversational touchpoints and AI-driven workflows the same way B2C teams are — because tomorrow’s B2B buyer won’t settle for anything less. 

New tech and tools for retailers to succeed in an agentic shopping era

Author: Vidhya Srinivasan

Website: Google Ads & Commerce Blog 

Just the Facts: Google announced a suite of agentic commerce tools designed to help retailers connect with high-intent AI-assisted shoppers and drive sales as AI becomes more deeply integrated into the shopping experience. Central to the update is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — an open standard co-developed with major retailers and platforms that enables AI agents to handle the full shopping journey, from discovery through checkout to post-purchase support. The announcement also introduces Business Agent (AI chat on Search), new Merchant Center data attributes for conversational discovery, and an AI-powered Direct Offers pilot in Google Ads. 

Why It Matters to Marketers: 

• UCP enables purchase completion directly within AI-driven discovery surfaces like Google Search’s AI Mode and Gemini, collapsing traditional “search → click → buy” journeys and forcing B2B marketers to rethink funnel measurement and attribution models accordingly.  
• The new Merchant Center attributes designed for conversational discovery mean marketers must optimize product metadata for AI consumption — not just human search — to maintain visibility and competitive positioning in agentic commerce experiences. 
• Features like Business Agent and Direct Offers give brands AI-native touchpoints to interact with shoppers in a “virtual sales associate” context, prompting teams to integrate conversational assets and real-time offer controls into existing CRM and loyalty systems.  
• Because UCP is an open, co-developed standard supported by major retailers and payment networks, B2B marketers and RevOps leaders must prepare for a multi-platform commerce layer in which control over customer experience and data governance becomes a strategic differentiator beyond paid media. 

Conversations that Convert: Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents 

Author: Nayna Sheth and Ravi Yada 

Website: Microsoft Advertising Blog 

Just the Facts: Microsoft Advertising introduced Copilot Checkout, an AI-driven commerce experience that lets shoppers discover products, compare options and complete purchases directly inside the Copilot interface without redirecting to external sites. Alongside this, Brand Agents are AI assistants that live on merchants’ own websites, speaking in the brand’s voice to guide visitors from questions to purchase. These tools aim to reduce friction in the shopping journey and help marketers turn AI-influenced interest into conversions while keeping merchants in control of the transaction and customer data. 

Why It Matters to Marketers: 

• Copilot Checkout embeds the purchase path directly within AI conversations, compressing the buyer journey and forcing B2B marketers to rethink funnel measurement and attribution models as “click-through” metrics give way to conversational conversion events.  
• Brand Agents let marketers deploy AI assistants trained on product catalogs that speak in a brand’s voice, necessitating new workflows for prompt governance, content training and quality control tied to conversion KPIs rather than traditional UX flows.  
• With merchants remaining the merchant of record even as transactions occur inside Copilot, B2B teams must revisit their data strategy to ensure first-party signals (e.g., purchase intent, customer behavior in chat) are captured and integrated into CRM, attribution and revenue operations.  
• As Microsoft, Google and others embed agentic commerce into core discovery and checkout surfaces, B2B leaders must plan for cross-platform commerce orchestration, partner integrations and differentiated value propositions that go beyond clicks to own the full AI-mediated customer journey. 

Walmart and Google Turn AI Discovery Into Effortless Shopping Experiences 

Website: Walmart Corporate

Just the Facts: Walmart and Google announced a new AI‑powered shopping experience that integrates Google’s Gemini intelligence with Walmart and Sam’s Club product assortments to make product discovery, personalization and purchasing easier. Available directly within the Gemini AI experience via the UCP, this initiative delivers tailored item recommendations, personalized carts, and fast delivery options — sometimes as quick as 30‑minute fulfillment in select areas. The rollout begins in the U.S. with international expansion to follow, representing a shift from traditional search‑based shopping to agent‑led commerce. 

Why It Matters to Marketers: 

• Embedding Walmart and Sam’s Club product discovery directly into Google’s Gemini conversational interface means B2B marketers must rethink performance metrics and media planning, shifting focus from clicks/landing pages to engagement and conversion events within AI dialogues.  
• Account-linked AI recommendations that combine past purchase signals with real-time conversational context require refined data strategies and tighter integration between martech stacks (CRM, CDP, personalization engines) to effectively surface relevant offers and measure lifetime value.  
• As AI becomes a direct touchpoint for product discovery and purchase, marketers must own the quality, consistency and compliance of AI-surface content (e.g., descriptions, recommendations, offers) to protect brand trust and avoid revenue leakage from poor or conflicting AI responses.  
• The partnership highlights how open protocols (such as the UCP powering this integration) can redefine the retail ecosystem, challenging B2B leaders to evaluate platform dependencies, partnership strategies and how commerce-oriented AI will reshape demand generation and partner monetization models. 

Mastercard Bets Future Payments Run Through AI Agents Instead of People 

Author: Luis Rijo 

Website: PPC Land 

Just the Facts: Mastercard unveiled Agent Pay, a new payments infrastructure built on the idea that AI agents — rather than humans — will increasingly initiate and execute purchases on behalf of consumers by discovering products and completing transactions autonomously. The system focuses on trust, security, and intent verification, requiring AI agents to register and authenticate, ensuring that every transaction reflects verified consumer intent and consent. Mastercard is collaborating with Google’s UCP and other partners to establish open standards that let agents interact securely with merchants and payment networks across the ecosystem. 

Why It Matters to Marketers: 

• Mastercard’s Agent Pay infrastructure assumes AI agents will initiate and complete purchases on behalf of users, pushing B2B teams to rethink demand-gen funnels and conversion metrics as traditional click-to-buy models erode in favor of agent-mediated transactions.  
• With cryptographically verifiable agent identities and audit trails replacing direct consumer actions, MarTech and analytics leaders must develop new frameworks to track intent, attribution and revenue performance for agent-initiated commerce rather than relying on classic session-based tracking.  
• Agent Pay’s reliance on network tokens and consent-driven permissions highlights the need for clear policies governing how customer preferences and credentials are stored, shared and used — creating both risk and opportunity for RevOps and privacy compliance teams.  
• Mastercard’s collaboration with Google, Stripe, Visa and major merchants on universal protocols signals a shift toward interoperable agentic commerce standards, prompting B2B marketers to evaluate partnerships and platform strategies that ensure brand visibility and control as AI agents increasingly own customer touchpoints.