Amazon is officially turning its voice assistant into a proactive shopping agent. With the rollout of new features for Alexa Plus, users can now authorize the AI to automatically purchase items the moment they hit a specific price threshold. This shift moves Alexa beyond simple recommendations and into the realm of “AI agentic commerce”—a term describing AI systems that act on behalf of users to discover products, compare deals, and complete payments entirely within the chatbot interface.
The new “automated price tracking” tool allows Alexa Plus subscribers to set target prices for specific products. Whether it’s a high-end kitchen appliance or a pair of sneakers, the AI monitors Amazon’s fluctuating marketplace 24/7. Once the price drops to the user’s pre-set limit, Alexa Plus completes the transaction using the default payment method and shipping address on file, often without requiring a final manual confirmation. This functionality, which recently debuted for Amazon’s “Rufus” chatbot, is now being integrated into the broader Alexa ecosystem, including the new “Shopping Essentials” hub on Echo Show 15 and 21 devices.
Amazon is not alone in this pursuit. The entire financial landscape is shifting to accommodate “agentic” behavior. Payment giants Visa and Mastercard have announced plans to support AI-driven purchases inside chatbots and third-party AI agents as early as 2026. Visa recently revealed its “Visa Intelligent Commerce” initiative, predicting that by the 2026 holiday season, millions of consumers will rely on AI agents to execute end-to-end purchases. Mastercard is similarly developing “Agent Pay” protocols to ensure that when an AI bot decides to buy, the payment rails are ready to authorize the software agent as a legitimate proxy for the human cardholder.
However, the transition to a world where “bots buy for us” is fraught with unresolved challenges. As pilots expand, industry experts warn that security, liability, and dispute rules remain in a legal gray area. If an AI agent misinterprets a command or buys the wrong version of a product during a fleeting “flash sale,” the question of who is liable—the consumer, the AI developer, or the merchant—is still being debated. There are also concerns regarding “accidental” spending; an auto-purchase triggered by an old price setting could result in unexpected financial strain for households.
Furthermore, the rise of agentic commerce creates a new battlefield for cybersecurity. Payment networks are currently racing to develop tokenized “agent-ready” credentials that replace sensitive card numbers with digital identifiers specifically for bot-initiated transactions. This is intended to prevent hackers from hijacking an AI agent to go on a fraudulent spending spree.
As Amazon leads the charge with Alexa Plus, the retail world is watching closely. While the convenience of never missing a deal is a powerful draw, the industry must still solve the “trust gap” before autonomous shopping becomes as common as a simple voice command.
Sources:
- CNBC: AI agentic shopping: How Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon are changing commerce
- The Verge: Amazon Alexa Plus can now automatically buy products when the price drops
- PYMNTS: Visa Says Millions of Consumers Will Use Agentic Commerce by Late 2026
- TechRadar: Alexa+ can now cut you out of the loop and order products for you
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