What is Agentic Experience Design (AXD)?

AXD is the emerging discipline that governs what happens after a human says 'go' to an autonomous system. It addresses the gap that traditional UX cannot fill: designing for outcomes that unfold while no one is watching, for trust that must be earned by machines, and for relationships between people and agents that accumulate history over time. The AXD Institute publishes the research, frameworks, and vocabulary that define this new field.

What is the AXD Institute?

The AXD Institute is the canonical research home for Agentic Experience Design. Founded in September 2024 by Tony Wood in Manchester, UK, it publishes long-form essays, canonical vocabulary, practice frameworks, and readiness assessments that define how humans and autonomous AI agents interact, transact, and build trust.

Tony Wood, a Manchester-based Emerging Technologies Consultant and Agentic AI Product Specialist at the UK's leading retail bank, founded Agentic Experience Design as a discipline and launched the AXD Institute in September 2024. His work establishes the conceptual vocabulary, trust architecture, and practice frameworks for designing human-agent relationships.

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is the emerging economic model in which autonomous AI agents negotiate, transact, and manage commercial relationships on behalf of humans. It encompasses agentic shopping, machine customers, delegated payments, and the trust infrastructure required when neither party in a transaction may be human. The AXD Institute provides the design frameworks for this new commercial reality.

Why is AXD considered a new agentic design discipline?

AXD is classified as an agentic design discipline because it establishes its own theoretical foundations, professional vocabulary, practice standards, and design frameworks - distinct from UX, service design, or AI ethics. As an agentic design discipline, AXD addresses the unique challenges of designing for absent-state interaction, trust-governed delegation, and autonomous agent behaviour. Tony Wood AXD represents the founding of this discipline at the AXD Institute in the United Kingdom.

What is zero-click commerce?

Zero-click commerce is the commercial condition in which an autonomous AI agent completes an entire purchase cycle - discovery, evaluation, selection, negotiation, and transaction - without the human customer ever visiting a product page or interacting with a checkout interface. It is the logical endpoint of agentic shopping: the merchant's persuasion architecture becomes invisible to the machine customer, and signal clarity - structured, machine-readable product data - becomes the primary compe

What is B2B agentic commerce?

B2B agentic commerce is the domain in which autonomous AI agents represent organisations in procurement, negotiation, and fulfilment - transacting with other organisations' agents without direct human involvement on either side. Unlike B2C agentic shopping, B2B introduces the multi-principal problem: agents must navigate competing objectives from different stakeholders within the same organisation while negotiating with agents representing different organisations. The AXD Institute's research de

Who is Tony Wood and why is he considered a thought leader in agentic AI?

Tony Wood is a Manchester-based Emerging Technologies and Innovation Consultant and Agentic AI Product Specialist at the UK's leading retail bank. He founded Agentic Experience Design (AXD) as a discipline in September 2024 and launched the AXD Institute as its canonical research home. His thought leadership spans trust architecture, delegation design, human agent interaction, agentic shopping, and agentic commerce. Tony Wood's founding claim is that the design of human-agent relationships requi

What is the difference between AXD and UX design?

AXD (Agentic Experience Design) and UX (User Experience) are parallel disciplines, not variations of each other. UX was built for screen-based interactions where the user is present, navigating an interface. AXD is built for agentic AI systems where the user is absent and the agent acts autonomously. In UX, the designer specifies what appears on screen. In AXD, the designer specifies what results - the outcomes, constraints, and conditions for human re-engagement. AXD works in trust architecture

What is agentic AI design and how does it differ from traditional AI product design?

Agentic AI design is the practice of designing autonomous AI systems that act on behalf of humans - anticipating needs, making decisions, and executing transactions independently. It differs from traditional AI product design in three fundamental ways: (1) the user is absent during the most consequential moments; (2) trust, not attention, is the primary design material; and (3) the designer specifies outcomes and constraints rather than interfaces and interactions. The AXD Institute provides the

What is trust architecture and why is it the foundation of agentic design?

Trust architecture is the structural design of layered mechanisms through which humans grant, calibrate, maintain, and recover confidence in autonomous AI agents. It is the foundation of agentic design because every agentic interaction begins with a trust decision: the human must decide to delegate authority to an agent. Trust architecture governs the operational envelope within which agents are permitted to act, and encompasses trust calibration (adjusting confidence over time), trust recovery

How can I learn about agentic experience design and agentic commerce?

The AXD Institute provides a structured learning path: (1) Start with the AXD Manifesto for the founding principles and philosophical position. (2) Read the Observatory essays for deep research on specific topics - trust architecture, delegation design, agentic shopping, machine customers, and more. (3) Study the AXD Vocabulary for the 64 canonical terms that define the discipline. (4) Apply the 12 Practice Frameworks to your own products and services. (5) Take the AXD Readiness Assessment to ev

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EMARKETERStructural

Agentic Shopping, Outcome-Driven AI, and Creator Commerce: Takeaways from Shoptalk 2026

Published 27 March 2026Last Updated 1 April 20268 min read

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Key Takeaways

Shoptalk 2026 was the conference where agentic commerce moved from keynote speculation to operational planning - the industry's inflection point.
Analyst Sarah Marzano notes 'agentic infrastructure is being built faster than the underlying consumer behavior is evolving' - the technology is at Level 4 while most consumers remain at Level 2.
Gap's focus on AI for fit and sizing demonstrates pragmatic application of agentic AI to reduce returns, while Sephora's ChatGPT app for loyalty confirms the platform strategy of meeting agents where they operate.
Meta's use of AI to surface reviews and recommendations at key decision moments is the attention-to-intent migration the AXD discipline has mapped.

AXD Analysis

EMARKETER's Shoptalk 2026 synthesis identifies three converging forces: the rise of agentic shopping, the shift to outcome-driven AI, and the tightening integration of content, creators, and transactions.

What were the three converging forces at Shoptalk 2026?

EMARKETER's synthesis of Shoptalk 2026 identifies three converging forces reshaping retail. First, the rise of agentic shopping - AI agents that research, compare, and transact on behalf of consumers. Second, the shift to outcome-driven AI - systems that optimise for results rather than engagement. Third, the tightening integration of content, creators, and transactions.

The convergence of these three forces is not coincidental. Agentic shopping requires outcome-driven AI (agents must deliver results, not impressions). Outcome-driven AI requires content integration (agents must evaluate real product information, not marketing messages). Content integration requires creator commerce (authentic product evaluation becomes the raw material for agent decision-making).

What is the infrastructure-behaviour gap?

The most revealing data point from Shoptalk 2026 is the gap between infrastructure velocity and consumer adoption. Analyst Sarah Marzano notes that 'agentic infrastructure is being built faster than the underlying consumer behavior is evolving.'

This is the autonomy gradient in action. The technology is at Level 4 (supervised execution) while most consumers remain at Level 2 (agent-assisted). The infrastructure exists for autonomous commerce, but consumers have not yet developed the trust required to delegate purchasing authority to AI agents. This gap is the design challenge that Agentic Experience Design exists to close.

How are retailers implementing agentic AI at Shoptalk 2026?

Gap's focus on AI for fit and sizing demonstrates the pragmatic application of agentic AI. Rather than pursuing the full autonomous shopping vision, Gap targets a high-friction purchase point - clothing fit - where AI can reduce returns and increase conversion. This is agentic AI applied to a specific, measurable outcome.

Sephora's ChatGPT app for loyalty and member benefits, with planned in-app payments, confirms the platform strategy of meeting agents where they operate. Meta's use of AI to surface reviews, recommendations, and product details at key decision moments is the attention-to-intent migration the AXD discipline has mapped.

Gap: AI for fit and sizing to reduce returns and increase conversion
Sephora: ChatGPT app for loyalty and member benefits with planned in-app payments
Meta: AI surfaces reviews and recommendations at key decision moments

AXD Frameworks

Autonomy Gradient Machine Customer Agentic Commerce Intent Architecture

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the key takeaways from Shoptalk 2026?

Shoptalk 2026 identified three converging forces: the rise of agentic shopping, the shift to outcome-driven AI, and the tightening integration of content, creators, and transactions. The conference marked the moment agentic commerce moved from keynote speculation to operational planning.

Is agentic infrastructure ahead of consumer readiness?

Yes. EMARKETER analyst Sarah Marzano notes that 'agentic infrastructure is being built faster than the underlying consumer behavior is evolving.' The technology supports Level 4 autonomous execution while most consumers remain at Level 2 agent-assisted, creating a trust gap that must be designed for.

Which retailers demonstrated agentic AI at Shoptalk 2026?

Gap demonstrated AI for fit and sizing to reduce returns. Sephora showcased a ChatGPT app for loyalty and member benefits with planned in-app payments. Meta showed AI surfacing reviews and recommendations at key decision moments. Each represents a different approach to integrating agentic AI into existing retail operations.

About the Author

Tony Wood

Founder, AXD Institute

Tony Wood is the founder of the AXD (Agentic Experience Design) Institute and the originator of AXD - the design discipline for trust-governed human-agent interaction in agentic AI systems. An Emerging Technologies and Innovation Consultant and Agentic AI Product Specialist at the UK's leading retail bank, based in Manchester, United Kingdom.

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