Most consumers aren’t ready to let AI agents shop unsupervised
Customer control, account security and ease of use are influencing the adoption of AI agents that make purchases, book services and access personal information, according to Okta’s 2026 Customer Identity Trends Report.
Customer control, account security and ease of use are influencing the adoption of AI agents that make purchases, book services and access personal information, according to Okta’s 2026 Customer Identity Trends Report.
Only 37% of North American consumers are ready to let AI make final decisions and act on their behalf or handle routine tasks and less important decisions.
Businesses introducing these services must meet new requirements for verifying agents and managing their permissions; they reported greater use of authentication that simplifies account access while protecting customer interactions and revenue.
Globally, 52% of consumers say AI capabilities in apps and websites are advancing too fast, and customer identity and access management handles sign-ins, account access and permissions.
Consumers’ willingness to delegate depends on what an agent can do, the consequences of a mistake and their ability to approve or reverse its actions.
Willingness exceeds 50% for most use cases when people can approve or undo an action.
If a transaction goes wrong, the company needs to establish which agent acted, what permission it had and what happened.
Centralizing identity checks and permissions can reduce work developers would otherwise repeat across applications, giving them more time to build customer features.
Explaining those permissions and providing ways to withdraw access can help customers decide how much responsibility to hand over.
Across the global findings, organizations relying solely on an external customer identity platform were more likely to have AI features in production and keep deployments on schedule.
What happened
Customer control, account security and ease of use are influencing the adoption of AI agents that make purchases, book services and access personal information, according to Okta’s 2026 Customer Identity Trends Report.
Only 37% of North American consumers are ready to let AI make final decisions and act on their behalf or handle routine tasks and less important decisions.
What changed
Businesses introducing these services must meet new requirements for verifying agents and managing their permissions; they reported greater use of authentication that simplifies account access while protecting customer interactions and revenue.
Who is affected
Globally, 52% of consumers say AI capabilities in apps and websites are advancing too fast, and customer identity and access management handles sign-ins, account access and permissions.
Why it matters
Consumers’ willingness to delegate depends on what an agent can do, the consequences of a mistake and their ability to approve or reverse its actions.
Willingness exceeds 50% for most use cases when people can approve or undo an action.
Technical details
If a transaction goes wrong, the company needs to establish which agent acted, what permission it had and what happened.
Centralizing identity checks and permissions can reduce work developers would otherwise repeat across applications, giving them more time to build customer features.
Explaining those permissions and providing ways to withdraw access can help customers decide how much responsibility to hand over.
Response
Across the global findings, organizations relying solely on an external customer identity platform were more likely to have AI features in production and keep deployments on schedule.
Someone asking an assistant to find a flight may want to approve the ticket, decide whether it can use saved payment details and review changes to the booking.
What security teams should do
Records of agent activity help teams investigate errors and unauthorized access; an agent checking an order’s delivery status needs shipping information.
Attribution
Help Net Security: Customer control, account security and ease of use are influencing the adoption of AI agents that make purchases, book services and access personal information, according to Okta’s 2026 Customer Identity Trends Report.