Agentic commerce is on the agenda, even as familiarity lags

Agentic commerce is getting boardroom attention faster than the term itself is becoming familiar. In practice, it moves AI from recommending to acting: placing orders, completing transactions, managing inventory, and personalizing customer experiences within guardrails set by people. Visa commissioned Agentic Commerce: Market Insights and Outlook for Egypt, conducted by Fast Company Middle East and powered by Probity, to see how Egyptian businesses are approaching that shift.

Most of the senior decision-makers surveyed are still getting acquainted with the concept. Of those surveyed, 55.7% say they are not very familiar with agentic commerce, while another 16.8% have heard of it but find the term unclear. Just 27.2% consider themselves quite or very familiar.

Familiarity has not dampened expectations. More than eight in 10 respondents (83.8%) expect moderate to high disruption to their industry within two years, while 12.9% expect incremental change. No respondent expects zero impact.

Those expectations are beginning to turn into activity. While 16.1% of surveyed organizations were preparing pilots for launch within six months, another 16.1% have defined mid-term rollout plans, while 2.4% reported having implemented autonomous purchasing. Most of that exploration is being pushed from the top, with 32.5% citing executive leadership as the main force behind it. The discussion is moving toward practical decisions businesses will have to make: where agents can create value, what actions they can execute, and how those actions will be supervised.

Read Visa’s full report for its recommendations on making those decisions.