AI agents poised to upend how Canadians shop and invest, Accenture finds
A sweeping new study on consumer attitudes toward artificial intelligence suggests financial advisors in Canada should pay close attention to how their clients are beginning to hand over decision-making to AI agents, with implications that stretch well beyond retail shopping.
Accenture's seventh annual Consumer Pulse Research, drawn from surveys of 25,590 consumers across 16 countries including Canada, finds that 74% of respondents would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf.
The same share would allow an agent to handle routine tasks, while 32% are ready to let AI make purchase decisions outright and 9% would grant full autonomous shopping capabilities. Seven in ten respondents expect gen AI to influence at least half of their spending decisions over the next 12 months. For a profession built on understanding client behavior, that trajectory matters.
The research draws a distinction between a generative AI assistant, which responds when prompted, and an AI agent, which actually acts within permissions set by the consumer, shopping, negotiating, resolving complaints and in some cases completing purchases without any human sign-off.
Importantly, Accenture finds that consumers are selective rather than wholesale in what they delegate.
Recurring services such as insurance, telecom and utilities rank highest for all levels of delegation, while travel and lifestyle purchases see the sharpest drop-off as autonomy increases. Clients may be comfortable letting an agent renew a policy but unwilling to let it choose a hotel room or a financial product.
Consumers delegate what feels like hassle and hold on to what carries personal meaning. Retirement planning, investment strategy and financial goal-setting arguably sit firmly in the second category.
Accenture finds consumers are more than twice as likely to trust brand-owned or retailer-owned agents as AI-native platform agents, with the top drivers being existing knowledge of preferences, trust built through strong service and access to a broad range of products. Advisors who build deep client relationships and maintain rich preference data are, in effect, already positioned for an agentic world.
The study also identifies what it calls a value reset for brands, warning that AI agents will expose weak propositions and eliminate friction. As the report puts it directly: "Value built on habit, confusion or the limits of human attention will not just erode, it will be removed from industries entirely."
For advisors, clients armed with agents that can benchmark fees, compare returns and verify service claims will arrive better informed and less patient with gaps between promise and delivery.
The era of assumed value, as Accenture frames it, is closing fast.
