New Delhi: Consumers in India are increasingly open to AI agent-led shopping experiences, signalling a major shift in how products are discovered, evaluated and purchased, according to Accenture’s Consumer Pulse Survey 2026.
The report highlights that consumers are facing growing challenges around choice overload, limited time and excessive information, creating friction in purchase decisions while increasing costs for businesses through abandoned carts, high return rates, margin pressures and customer acquisition spends.
Accenture said agentic commerce has the potential to reshape this model by enabling AI agents to compare products, evaluate information, make recommendations, complete purchases and manage post-purchase activities such as delivery and returns on behalf of consumers.
The survey indicates that Indian consumers may be adopting AI-powered shopping behaviour faster than businesses anticipate. Nearly 30% of consumers in India now use large language models as their primary discovery channel, while 94% said they would like to shop directly within generative AI tools.
Further, 86% of consumers in India are likely to rely on generative AI tools for 50% of their spending decisions, while 70% want AI agents to shop for their idealised self, supporting aspirations such as healthier choices, better budgeting and more intentional upgrades.
The report also highlights the potential impact of AI agents on brand loyalty. While 59% of Indian consumers said they would instruct their AI agent on which brands to consider, 36% said they would switch from preferred brands if an AI agent recommended a better fit. Additionally, 90% of consumers said they trust AI agents over their best friends when making a purchase decision.
According to Accenture, businesses need to focus on becoming the “choice of agents” in the near term by ensuring that their products and services are discoverable and trusted by AI systems. This will require machine-readable product data, verifiable claims, transparent pricing and customer experiences that can be evaluated reliably by AI tools.
Over the longer term, brands have the opportunity to develop specialised vertical AI agents that consumers can rely on for category-specific advice, recommendations and transactions. To become the “agent of choice”, companies will need deep domain expertise, strong first-party customer data, industry-specific workflows, personalised recommendations and integrated service and fulfilment capabilities.
Commenting on the findings, Ankur Chaudhary, MD and Lead, Products Group, India Business, Accenture, said, “India’s consumers are signaling that agentic commerce may scale faster than many businesses expect. As AI reshapes how products are discovered, evaluated and purchased, brands must rethink how they compete, earn loyalty and reimagine the customer journey for a world where AI agents influence decisions. Those that move early to build trusted, AI-ready experiences will be better positioned to unlock growth and shape the next era of commerce.”
Tan Bee Leng, Chief Commercial Officer, The Ascott Limited and Managing Director, Digital Ventures, CapitaLand Investment, said, “Ascott sees agentic commerce as one of the most significant opportunities to create value in hospitality. As AI agents increasingly influence how travel decisions are made, we are investing deliberately in the parts of the value chain that can drive the greatest impact from discovery and conversion to personalization and loyalty. While technology will help us deliver more seamless and intuitive guest experiences, hospitality remains a people business. AI can enhance how we operate, but it is our associates who provide the warmth, empathy and judgement that turn a stay into a heartfelt experience. As we move forward, we are investing in both the technology foundation and the capabilities of our people because the future of hospitality will need both.”
Vivek Luthra, Senior Managing Director and Lead, AI & Data, Asia Oceania, Accenture, said, “Agentic commerce represents a significant opportunity for businesses across Asia Pacific to create new customer value, delivering more relevant, seamless and intelligent experiences throughout the customer journey. Realizing that opportunity requires far more than reimagining consumer touchpoints. Organizations will need to undertake an enterprise-wide reinvention bringing together marketing, sales, service, operations and technology teams, while investing in the capabilities, governance and operating models needed to scale AI-driven experiences and translate innovation into sustainable growth.”
Accenture’s Consumer Pulse Survey 2026 surveyed a representative sample of 25,590 consumers across 16 countries, including more than 7,000 consumers from Australia, Greater China, India and Japan. The research examined consumer behaviour across demographics, technology adoption patterns, brand preferences and 17 industry categories.
