Abstract:

Agentic commerce, an AI-mediated shopping in which autonomous agents search, evaluate, and execute purchases on consumers' behalf, is reshaping the consumer decision-making landscape. While prior research has examined AI recommendation systems and technology acceptance, little is known about how consumers experience the delegation to AI agents, particularly when they selectively delegate only parts of the purchase journey. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and psychological ownership theory, this paper develops a framework for understanding how consumers negotiate delegation across sequential journey stages (information search, option comparison, product selection, transaction execution) and how these configurations shape perceived autonomy and psychological ownership of the purchase outcome. This study conceptualises agentic commerce as a redistribution of decisional authority, while selective delegation may preserve autonomy and sustain the experience that the outcome is authentically "mine." Within this study, a scenario-based qualitative interview will be developed to elicit consumers' anticipated autonomy, delegation, and psychological ownership across configurations of the AI-mediated shopping journey. By shifting attention from adoption to the psychological consequences of delegation, the study contributes to the understanding of how agentic commerce transforms the purchase journey, with implications for agentic systems that deliver convenience without eroding decisional ownership.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Marketing and Retail

Keywords: Consumer behaviour and psychology;Digital and social;Marketing strategy;Retail

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Ms. Mengzi Zhang