Who’s Really Shopping? Retail Fraud in the Age of Agentic AI

Agentic AI (AI systems that can independently take actions) is expected to handle 15-25% of e-commerce by 2030, but this growth creates security risks for retailers. Threat actors may exploit AI agents to commit fraud such as gift card theft and returns fraud, with estimates suggesting one in four data breaches by 2028 could involve AI agent exploitation. Google has introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to enable secure payments between AI agents and retail systems, though the article emphasizes that defending against AI-enabled fraud remains a critical challenge for organizations.