Visa recently released a study about the state of digital commerce in the Asia Pacific region. It found that while most consumers in the Asia Pacific region use AI for shopping, trust in AI and AI usage in general vary throughout the buying journey and across different markets and types of people.
Nearly Three Quarters of Asia Pacific Consumers Use AI
The Visa study, which was conducted by YouGov and based on the survey responses of nearly 15,000 consumers across 14 markets, provided insights into the connection between ecommerce and AI in the Asia Pacific region.
One of the most insightful pieces of information is that 74% of consumers in the region rely on AI during the early stages of shopping to help them discover, track, or learn more about products. This lines up with other research on the topic, such as a Clutch report that found that 70% of consumers already use AI to help them shop online in some way.
However, the remaining 26% of Asia Pacific consumers are still unsure about AI recommendations and want more control and transparency when using AI for shopping.
The research also found that this caution about AI usage and data privacy is more common among affluent households, as well as among digital-first markets like Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Trust Varies Across the Buying Journey
But while using AI to shop is already quite popular globally and only growing more common, trust varies across the buying journey. While many survey respondents are comfortable using it to compare pricing or learn about features, the confidence in AI goes away once the transaction becomes more personal.
In fact, 32% of respondents are still reluctant to share personal or payment details with AI, and 45% would be more open to agentic commerce if there were more assurances about the payment security of these systems.
Emerging Markets Are More Open to Agentic Commerce
The study also found that openness to agentic commerce varied throughout the Asia Pacific region. Surprisingly, digital maturity doesn’t automatically translate to higher levels of trust. India and Vietnam lead the region, as 42% of respondents from each of these nations are open to using AI for online purchases.
Conversely, people in more digitally-mature countries are more cautious about using AI to shop. For example, only 16% of those in New Zealand, 14% of those in Japan, and 14% of those in Singapore express interest in using AI for shopping.
This is largely due to higher expectations for things like security, data privacy, and personal control. Specifically, the study found that improved payment security is the strongest enabler of increased adoption in this area.
I believe that as time goes on, and AI continues to improve in terms of security, usability, and trust, more and more people will become more open to using it for complete purchases, and not just research.
However, as these results have shown, consumers need plenty of assurance about the security and privacy of these types of agentic commerce transactions before they can truly take off in popularity.
If these AI systems and the companies that create/use them are able to gain consumer trust with their security and privacy features, agentic commerce could quickly grow into a truly massive market.
