Table of Contents
AI Shopping Is Coming for These 5 Industries. Are They Ready?
Arjun Bhargava
Co-founder and CEO @ Rye
Sep 2, 2025
End-to-end agentic commerce is particularly promising for industries with repeatable purchase flows or complex dynamics.
Agentic commerce is moving from concept to reality. Soon, AI won’t just recommend products but will buy them on our behalf. Analysts expect the market to grow from $135 billion in 2025 to $1.7 trillion by 2030.
Some industries will feel the impact sooner than others, especially those with repeatable purchase flows, complex workflows, or inefficient manual systems. Here are five sectors that can’t afford to sit this one out.
Agentic commerce is moving from concept to reality. Soon, AI won’t just recommend products but will buy them on our behalf. Analysts expect the market to grow from $135 billion in 2025 to $1.7 trillion by 2030.
Some industries will feel the impact sooner than others, especially those with repeatable purchase flows, complex workflows, or inefficient manual systems. Here are five sectors that can’t afford to sit this one out.
Agentic commerce is moving from concept to reality. Soon, AI won’t just recommend products but will buy them on our behalf. Analysts expect the market to grow from $135 billion in 2025 to $1.7 trillion by 2030.
Some industries will feel the impact sooner than others, especially those with repeatable purchase flows, complex workflows, or inefficient manual systems. Here are five sectors that can’t afford to sit this one out.
1. Household Goods: The First Everyday Use Case
From weekly grocery lists to recurring household staples, household goods represent the most obvious early win for agentic commerce. Consumers don’t want to think about re-ordering paper towels, laundry detergent, or pet food—they just want the stuff they need to show up when needed. AI agents can monitor consumption patterns, compare prices, and place orders in the background.
Here, the consumer benefit is tangible: saving time and saving money. With the right infrastructure, household shopping will be one of the first consumer sectors to make agentic commerce feel indispensable. This is also one of the areas where there’s the least friction for adoption, because consumers are already accustomed to automatic refills. Amazon, for example, offers Prime members discounts for monthly product refills; by 2022, over a third of Americans already paid for at least one product subscription.
2. Procurement: Automating the Mundane in B2B
Corporate procurement is still bogged down by spreadsheets, requests, and long approval cycles. For routine orders—office supplies, hardware parts, restocking shelves—it’s an obvious candidate for automation. The market for “procurement-as-a-service” is projected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2024 to $22.1 billion by 2033.
AI-powered platforms can source vendors, compare offers, and place orders within policy frameworks—cutting cycle times, errors, and costs. In industries where procurement runs into the billions, the upside is massive.
Corporate procurement is still bogged down by spreadsheets, requests, and long approval cycles. For routine orders—office supplies, hardware parts, restocking shelves—it’s an obvious candidate for automation. The market for “procurement-as-a-service” is projected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2024 to $22.1 billion by 2033.
AI-powered platforms can source vendors, compare offers, and place orders within policy frameworks—cutting cycle times, errors, and costs. In industries where procurement runs into the billions, the upside is massive.
Corporate procurement is still bogged down by spreadsheets, requests, and long approval cycles. For routine orders—office supplies, hardware parts, restocking shelves—it’s an obvious candidate for automation. The market for “procurement-as-a-service” is projected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2024 to $22.1 billion by 2033.
AI-powered platforms can source vendors, compare offers, and place orders within policy frameworks—cutting cycle times, errors, and costs. In industries where procurement runs into the billions, the upside is massive.
3. Travel Booking: Agents That Plan and Purchase
There used to be a huge industry of travel agents that has been displaced by travelers buying directly. The time is ripe for agents to return, this time as digital versions that add value through suggesting, coordinating, and personalizing.
Booking flights, hotels, and ground transport means dealing with dozens of platforms (and countless upsell attempts). An agent that compares itineraries, factors in loyalty programs, finds deals, and completes bookings across languages and currencies is the natural next step.
Startups have tried and failed, but agentic travel assistants will eventually succeed, saving travelers time with personalized itineraries while helping providers monetize through seamless bundling. With global travel spend projected to surge from $566 billion in 2024 to $1.37 trillion by 2033, the stakes are enormous.
There used to be a huge industry of travel agents that has been displaced by travelers buying directly. The time is ripe for agents to return, this time as digital versions that add value through suggesting, coordinating, and personalizing.
Booking flights, hotels, and ground transport means dealing with dozens of platforms (and countless upsell attempts). An agent that compares itineraries, factors in loyalty programs, finds deals, and completes bookings across languages and currencies is the natural next step.
Startups have tried and failed, but agentic travel assistants will eventually succeed, saving travelers time with personalized itineraries while helping providers monetize through seamless bundling. With global travel spend projected to surge from $566 billion in 2024 to $1.37 trillion by 2033, the stakes are enormous.
There used to be a huge industry of travel agents that has been displaced by travelers buying directly. The time is ripe for agents to return, this time as digital versions that add value through suggesting, coordinating, and personalizing.
Booking flights, hotels, and ground transport means dealing with dozens of platforms (and countless upsell attempts). An agent that compares itineraries, factors in loyalty programs, finds deals, and completes bookings across languages and currencies is the natural next step.
Startups have tried and failed, but agentic travel assistants will eventually succeed, saving travelers time with personalized itineraries while helping providers monetize through seamless bundling. With global travel spend projected to surge from $566 billion in 2024 to $1.37 trillion by 2033, the stakes are enormous.
4. Healthcare: Managing Complexity for Patients
Managing purchases around your health and well-being is notoriously complex. Let’s say you have a back injury: From booking PT appointments to buying devices that can manage pain, you probably face confusing workflows and hidden costs. What’s potentially HSA-covered? Is the closest acupuncture clinic the most affordable? The easiest product or service to find often isn’t the most effective or cost-optimized. Agents can ease this burden by checking what’s available, comparing prices and benefits, and completing transactions with providers or suppliers (while you lie on a heating pad).
For consumers, the stakes are higher than convenience: It’s your health, after all. That’s why, while this is an obvious area that agentic commerce can benefit, consumer trust has to be at the core of the product promise, with clear and effective safeguards.
Managing purchases around your health and well-being is notoriously complex. Let’s say you have a back injury: From booking PT appointments to buying devices that can manage pain, you probably face confusing workflows and hidden costs. What’s potentially HSA-covered? Is the closest acupuncture clinic the most affordable? The easiest product or service to find often isn’t the most effective or cost-optimized. Agents can ease this burden by checking what’s available, comparing prices and benefits, and completing transactions with providers or suppliers (while you lie on a heating pad).
For consumers, the stakes are higher than convenience: It’s your health, after all. That’s why, while this is an obvious area that agentic commerce can benefit, consumer trust has to be at the core of the product promise, with clear and effective safeguards.
Managing purchases around your health and well-being is notoriously complex. Let’s say you have a back injury: From booking PT appointments to buying devices that can manage pain, you probably face confusing workflows and hidden costs. What’s potentially HSA-covered? Is the closest acupuncture clinic the most affordable? The easiest product or service to find often isn’t the most effective or cost-optimized. Agents can ease this burden by checking what’s available, comparing prices and benefits, and completing transactions with providers or suppliers (while you lie on a heating pad).
For consumers, the stakes are higher than convenience: It’s your health, after all. That’s why, while this is an obvious area that agentic commerce can benefit, consumer trust has to be at the core of the product promise, with clear and effective safeguards.
5. Corporate Gifting: High Volume, Low Differentiation
Corporate gifting, such as client thank-yous and employee rewards, is a $242 billion global market. But fulfillment is still manual, often relying on bulk orders and limited vendor catalogs, not to mention lots of guessing what people want. But imagine if an AI agent could crawl a corporate partner’s social media profiles to figure out what their favorite restaurants or sports teams were, and automatically drop-ship a relevant gift.
But while gifting may be a beachhead for agentic commerce, it’s also an area where mistakes carry outsized risk. Agents must be transparent about both what they know and what they don’t, avoiding missteps like sending wine to someone who doesn’t drink. By asking clarifying questions and showing their reasoning, they can build trust alongside personalization.
Corporate gifting, such as client thank-yous and employee rewards, is a $242 billion global market. But fulfillment is still manual, often relying on bulk orders and limited vendor catalogs, not to mention lots of guessing what people want. But imagine if an AI agent could crawl a corporate partner’s social media profiles to figure out what their favorite restaurants or sports teams were, and automatically drop-ship a relevant gift.
But while gifting may be a beachhead for agentic commerce, it’s also an area where mistakes carry outsized risk. Agents must be transparent about both what they know and what they don’t, avoiding missteps like sending wine to someone who doesn’t drink. By asking clarifying questions and showing their reasoning, they can build trust alongside personalization.
Corporate gifting, such as client thank-yous and employee rewards, is a $242 billion global market. But fulfillment is still manual, often relying on bulk orders and limited vendor catalogs, not to mention lots of guessing what people want. But imagine if an AI agent could crawl a corporate partner’s social media profiles to figure out what their favorite restaurants or sports teams were, and automatically drop-ship a relevant gift.
But while gifting may be a beachhead for agentic commerce, it’s also an area where mistakes carry outsized risk. Agents must be transparent about both what they know and what they don’t, avoiding missteps like sending wine to someone who doesn’t drink. By asking clarifying questions and showing their reasoning, they can build trust alongside personalization.
The Common Thread: Infrastructure Matters
Across all five industries, the opportunity is clear. What’s less obvious is how to make agentic commerce work in practice. That’s where infrastructure comes in. A successful commerce agent must offer programmatic checkout across millions of merchants, accurate resolution of shipping and taxes, and fraud-resilient transactions.
At Rye, we’ve built the Universal Checkout API to power this shift. By making checkout programmatic, fast, and reliable across the open web, we give developers and enterprises the foundation to deploy agents with confidence — in household goods, procurement, travel, healthcare, gifting, and beyond.
Across all five industries, the opportunity is clear. What’s less obvious is how to make agentic commerce work in practice. That’s where infrastructure comes in. A successful commerce agent must offer programmatic checkout across millions of merchants, accurate resolution of shipping and taxes, and fraud-resilient transactions.
At Rye, we’ve built the Universal Checkout API to power this shift. By making checkout programmatic, fast, and reliable across the open web, we give developers and enterprises the foundation to deploy agents with confidence — in household goods, procurement, travel, healthcare, gifting, and beyond.
Across all five industries, the opportunity is clear. What’s less obvious is how to make agentic commerce work in practice. That’s where infrastructure comes in. A successful commerce agent must offer programmatic checkout across millions of merchants, accurate resolution of shipping and taxes, and fraud-resilient transactions.
At Rye, we’ve built the Universal Checkout API to power this shift. By making checkout programmatic, fast, and reliable across the open web, we give developers and enterprises the foundation to deploy agents with confidence — in household goods, procurement, travel, healthcare, gifting, and beyond.
The Takeaway
Agentic commerce won’t transform every industry overnight. But for these five sectors, the future is arriving fast (and in the case of household goods, it’s already practically there). The companies that adopt early will reduce costs, build loyalty, and reshape customer expectations.
And the ones that wait? They’ll be competing against agents that never sleep, find the best deal, and close the transaction in seconds.
Agentic commerce won’t transform every industry overnight. But for these five sectors, the future is arriving fast (and in the case of household goods, it’s already practically there). The companies that adopt early will reduce costs, build loyalty, and reshape customer expectations.
And the ones that wait? They’ll be competing against agents that never sleep, find the best deal, and close the transaction in seconds.
Agentic commerce won’t transform every industry overnight. But for these five sectors, the future is arriving fast (and in the case of household goods, it’s already practically there). The companies that adopt early will reduce costs, build loyalty, and reshape customer expectations.
And the ones that wait? They’ll be competing against agents that never sleep, find the best deal, and close the transaction in seconds.
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