Chargebacks in the dawn of agentic commerce
Amazonโs new โBuy for Meโ beta feature lets shoppers outsource the entire checkout process on third-party sites to an in-app AI agentโno browser, no manual form-filling, just one click. This shift marks the rise of โagentic commerce,โ where AI agents will drive trillions in spend by automating price-shopping, coupon stacking, and instant checkout around the clock.
But as AI agents become the new checkout assistants, they also introduce more risk. According to Mastercardโs 2025 State of Chargebacks, global disputes are expected to jump from 261 million in 2025 to 324 million by 2028โa 24% surge largely driven by card-not-present transactions.
Merchants who continue to treat chargebacks as an edge-case cost center risk, may soon find themselves drowning under the sheer volume of incoming claims.
Image source: Mastercard
Double-Edged AI: Convenience vs. Risk
Yesterday, bot-like traffic screamed โcard-testing script.โ Today, that same pattern might be a legitimate shopping agent buying groceries on a customerโs behalf. Fraud teams must now distinguish between โhelperโ agents from hostile automation, even as both generate headless API calls that bypass browser-based defenses and operate directly with the merchant backend API.
Friendly-Fraud 2.0โโI Donโt Remember Authorizing Thatโ
A 2025 MIT Media Lab EEG study of 54 students showed that heavy LLM users exhibit reduced memory retention and critical-thinking activity, often failing to recall their own work minutes later.
When shoppers outsource cognition to agents, expect a spike in friendly disputes: forgotten orders, mis-prompts (โI meant one, not ten!โ), or agent glitchesโall creating chargebacks where merchants are left holding the bag.
This isnโt just speculation; similar incidents have already occurred, such as, lawyers who relied on fake citations in their evidence, or an AI agent that deleted a companyโs whole database!
Weโre also likely to see a rise in buyerโs remorse, not due to fraud, but genuine confusion. When shoppers donโt directly experience the purchase flow, they’re more likely to dispute transactions they donโt fully recall or recognize.
This changes how we think about chargeback evidence. Itโs no longer sufficient to show a smooth checkout. Merchants will increasingly need to prove:
- That the consumer had a clear agreement with the AI agent
- That they knowingly authorized the agent to transact on their behalf
- That the merchant fulfilled the order exactly as described
Evidence in an Agentic World
Traditional chargeback evidenceโ like IP geolocation and browser fingerprintsโis rapidly losing relevance in cloud-native, agent-drive interactions. Images such as a screenshot of the checkout pages might even become obsolete. To win tomorrowโs disputes, merchants need richer telemetry:
| Classic Proof | Why It Fails with Agents | Modern Alternative |
| Customer IP | Cloud VM โ cardholder | Agent ID hash, API key |
| Device print | Resets with each headless session | Orchestration trace |
| Session flow | Single API call | Agent interaction logs or search history |
What Merchants Should Prepare for Agentic Commerce
Agentic transactions might look different under the hood, but the fundamentals of chargeback defense still apply. To stay ready, merchants should focus on capturing and storing key datapoints that can support representment.
- Order context: Items ordered, prices, fulfillment timelines
- Execution signals: Timestamps, session tokens, API headers, or agent IDs (if exposed)
- Account-level info: Customer ID, historical behavior, login and payment consistency
Even if the full customer-agent conversation isnโt visible, having a clear view of the execution trail can be enough to build a compelling case.
Itโs not about perfect visibility; itโs about meaningful traceability.
At Justt, we understand that not every merchant stores data the same way. Thatโs why our platform accepts evidence through APIs, cloud storage links (like S3 or SFTP), CSV/PDF exports, or direct platform integrations. However you track your orders, we make it easy to put that data to work.
Our dynamic argument builder tailors each representment to the nuances of the transactionโadjusting for signals like cloud-based agent infrastructure, API-initiated checkouts, and alternative ID patternsโso your defense stays strong, even when the ecosystem evolves.
The Bottom Line
Agentic commerce is already reshaping e-commerce logistics, payments, and consumer behavior. Chargebacks are next.
The good news? Most merchants already have the infrastructure to adapt. A bit of planning today ensures you’re ready to handle tomorrow’s disputes with speed and confidence.
Inspired by Ravelinโs article on agentic commerce and AI fraud.
