AdExchanger columnist has AI agent complete her back-to-school shopping in 20 minutes

August 22, 2026 · AdExchanger

AdExchanger columnist has AI agent complete her back-to-school shopping in 20 minutes

An AI shopping agent filled Sarah Sluis's cart with back-to-school supplies for her two children, adding items such as glue sticks, pencils and Fiskars scissors while she supplied guidance and switched her order preference from drive-up to shipping, the AdExchanger columnist wrote. The task took more than 20 minutes, longer, she noted, than doing it herself might have taken. She reviewed the completed cart, tossed in a few extra items and checked out.

Brand loyalty could increasingly hinge on the instruction a shopper gives an AI agent: telling an agent to always buy Fiskars locks in loyalty that a rival's sale can't break, while telling it to always find the lowest price opens the door to challenger brands regardless of history. Sluis expects AI agents to increasingly handle purchases that carry little emotional weight, such as restocking pencils and dish soap, while people continue to reserve shopping trips built around comparison and discovery for themselves.

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