In a new report, “Shopping in the Age of AI: Redefining Stores for a New Era,” ICSC and McKinsey and Co. indicated that AI-mediated search and purchase automation are reshaping consumer expectations, with up to $1 trillion in B2C retail revenue across the United States delivered through agentic commerce by 2030.
Today, AI use is concentrated in the early stages of the shopping journey, with 62% of shoppers saying they use AI to compare brands, models, prices or reviews. At the same time, 54% said they use AI to learn about a category or product, including making determinations about which features to prioritize, and nearly half turn to it for discovery and inspiration. In total, 68% of consumers noted using at least one AI-enabled tool in the past three months.
As AI agents handle more routine shopping, retailers and shopping centers should clearly deliver either convenience or discovery, the report suggests. Convenience-optimized stores emphasize speed, intuitive navigation and in-stock reliability, cited by 37% of consumers in the research as a top driver, while successful discovery-led formats prioritize engagement through experiential retail, digital storytelling and personalized service. The experiential approach is especially critical for younger shoppers. In the research, 4 in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials agreed that experiential retail makes them more likely to shop at a retailer.
Retailers and commercial real estate operations must move beyond one-size-fits-all formats by designing destinations with a clear purpose for the role they assume, aligning layout, assortment, technology and talent to deliver either speed or engagement.
Technology will be critical, reducing friction in convenience-led stores while enhancing service and personalization in discovery-led environments. Landlords should curate tenant mixes that blend retail, dining and services into cohesive destinations, according to the report. Doing so requires operational redesign and disciplined capital allocation, with significant upside. McKinsey estimates that those that are the very best at such tailoring will capture more than 85% of sector economic profit, underscoring the value of building store systems aligned to evolving consumer behavior.
