TLDR: Google’s John Mueller has advised e-commerce websites to test their compatibility with agentic AI, following an experiment that assessed how well AI agents could navigate and make purchases on online stores. This recommendation highlights the growing importance of optimizing websites for autonomous AI shopping agents.
Google’s John Mueller, a prominent figure in the search engine optimization (SEO) community, has recently emphasized the critical need for e-commerce websites to assess their readiness for agentic AI. This recommendation stems from an experiment conducted by Malte Polzin, which tested the accessibility of the top 50 Swiss e-commerce sites for AI agents, specifically those powered by ChatGPT, shopping on behalf of consumers. Mueller reposted these findings, underscoring the potential for AI agents to become a significant force in online commerce.
Agentic AI refers to autonomous AI systems capable of performing tasks, including browsing, researching, and making purchases, without direct human intervention. These AI agents are envisioned to handle everything from purchase decisions and order management to price monitoring. Major industry players like Google, MasterCard, and Visa are already exploring and developing solutions in this space, signaling a transformative shift in online shopping.
Google itself is advancing in this area with initiatives like Project Mariner, an experimental AI agent that autonomously browses and interacts with websites to complete tasks such as buying tickets or groceries. Announced at Google I/O 2025, Project Mariner is designed to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and integrates with Google’s Gemini API and Vertex AI. This push by Google, along with Microsoft’s vision for an “open agentic web” with billions of AI agents by 2028, indicates a future where AI-driven delegation will significantly reshape internet navigation and commerce.
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For e-commerce businesses, this means a proactive approach is necessary. Websites will need to be optimized not just for human users and traditional SEO, but also for AI agents that will be “skimming and scraping” sites for product information, applying discounts, and managing transactions. This necessitates tighter cross-departmental collaboration, particularly with IT, product, catalog, finance, and compliance teams, to future-proof API strategies, authentication, and fraud protocols. Vigilance and ongoing data analysis will be crucial to adapt to evolving threats and opportunities presented by agentic checkout. The shift is likened to a major cultural and technological turning point, bringing both “beauties and horrors” as AI agents become integral to the purchasing process.
