AI Agents Drive Retail, Finance, and Consumer Shifts

Enterprises across industries are increasingly turning to autonomous AI agents, with experts and McKinsey emphasizing that these agents, rather than basic chatbots, are poised to drive true business value and profitability. McKinsey notes most companies have not yet realized significant gains from generative AI and advises a shift toward outcome-driven AI automation. In finance, 'agentic AI' is enabling scalable customer service and operations while introducing new challenges in compliance and trust management. Consumer research projects that AI-powered shopping experiences could influence over half of U.S. spending by 2030. Technologies like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) are helping enterprises produce more accurate, context-aware AI outputs and reduce errors. In retail, AI algorithms are not only enhancing customer experience but also acting as 'digital employees' to help combat organized retail crime, now estimated at $100 billion annually.