Are shoppers really buying through AI agents? Amazon and DoorDash say not much yet
Not many yet. On 29 October 2026 Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told analysts that few customers buy through outside shopping agents, because the experience is “still not great, nor more convenient than coming to a retailer directly.” A day later DoorDash said it has seen only “several hundred” orders in total from third-party agents. What is growing fast is AI help inside the store: Amazon says more than 400 million customers used its Alexa for Shopping assistant in the last 12 months.
- Jassy made the comments on Amazon’s third-quarter earnings call on 29 October 2026.
- Amazon says Alexa for Shopping, its own shopping assistant, was used by 400 million+ customers in the last 12 months, with customer interactions up 570% year over year. Jassy said U.S. customers who use it spend 50% more per order.
- DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said the company has seen “maybe several hundred orders in total” from third-party agents such as Muse and Instinct. DoorDash has said it completes about 3 million deliveries a day.
- Both companies still want to learn from agents: DoorDash said it wants a healthy relationship with agent makers and has released an MCP server for corporate ordering.
What happened
Two big retailers gave a reality check on AI shopping agents in the same week. Fortune reports that Jassy told investors few customers buy through outside agents, while Amazon’s third-quarter results highlight fast growth for its own assistant. TechCrunch reports that DoorDash has seen only several hundred agent orders. Xu put it this way: “you never want to fight gravity. But at the same time, you don’t want to be delusional.”
What this means for your store
Outside agents are early, but AI is already shaping how people shop. So:
- Don’t panic, don’t ignore it: agent orders are small today but growing from a low base. Our look at Forter’s agent order data shows they are rising quickly.
- Fix what helps both humans and AI: clear product titles, prices, stock, shipping and returns help a shopper, an AI answer and an agent alike.
- Answer questions on your own site: Amazon’s numbers show shoppers like asking questions while they shop. Good FAQs and product details give AI tools, and your own customers, something reliable to read.
The technical details
An outside agent, such as Muse or Instinct, works for the shopper and visits many stores. An in-store assistant, like Alexa for Shopping, works for one retailer. To be ready for both, keep your product pages readable by machines (schema markup and a clean robots.txt) and your checkout working without tricks. MCP, a standard way for AI agents to use a business’s tools, is one route DoorDash already offers.
Want to know if AI agents can find and read your store today? Run our free AI check, or get robots.txt, llms.txt and schema done for you with the AI-Ready Kit.
