Sellers of agentic products face a consumer trust deficit and must persuade skeptical merchants to open their online marketplaces, according to a new WP Intelligence report. The promised reach of agentic commerce runs into a familiar power arrangement: companies offer new tools, while consumers and merchants decide whether to trust them and grant access.
Who Controls the Gate
The report, from Lead AI & Tech Analyst Dan Gallagher, says sellers need to overcome consumer skepticism and convince merchants to provide access to their online marketplaces. That access isn't automatic. Merchants hold a point of control, and sellers of agentic products must win their cooperation before those products can spread through the marketplaces.
The report doesn't say which consumers distrust the products, what concerns they have, or how merchants explain their skepticism. It offers no survey figures or examples of a marketplace refusing access. But it identifies the friction: sellers want agentic commerce to take off, while consumer trust and merchant permission remain obstacles. The people expected to accept the products, and the businesses asked to admit them, aren't described as having spoken directly.
Meta and OpenAI recently released agentic products with what the report calls wide-ranging capabilities. Those releases place powerful technology companies at the center of the story, but the report doesn't name specific capabilities or say how consumers have used them. Its account is narrower: new products exist, but their wider diffusion has run into barriers.
Rules and Rivalries Slow the Spread
Existing regulation around complex transactions and competitive dynamics in the tech industry have blocked the diffusion of these agentic products, the report says. That leaves two institutional constraints in view: rules governing complex transactions and competition among technology companies. The report doesn't identify particular regulations, describe a legislative proposal, or say which companies are competing in what way beyond naming Meta and OpenAI as recent releasers of agentic products.
No election, legislative fix, grassroots campaign, mutual-aid effort, or direct action appears in the account. Nor does it mention nonprofits or other institutional helpers. There's no proposed community response to weigh against the companies and marketplaces controlling the route to wider adoption. Instead, the report describes products trying to move through a system shaped by regulation, commercial rivalry, consumer trust, and merchant access.
A Takeoff Still Being Sold
The phrase “truly take off” sets an ambition, not an outcome. The report says sellers need to persuade consumers and merchants; it doesn't say they've done so. It says regulation and competitive dynamics have blocked diffusion, but it doesn't quantify that blockage or identify a timetable for change.
That distinction matters. Wide-ranging capabilities aren't the same as broad adoption, and a product release doesn't settle who gets access or who trusts the product. In the account, sellers make the case for agentic commerce, merchants control access to their online marketplaces, and consumers remain a trust hurdle. The technology companies have launched products. The path beyond those launches remains contested, and the report names no resolution.