Brands Rethink Loyalty For AI Agents

As 2026 approaches, brands across retail, payments, telecom and financial services are redesigning loyalty programs to be machine-readable so AI agents can query catalogs, compare subscriptions and execute purchases on behalf of humans. PYMNTS Intelligence found over 60% of U.S. consumers used dedicated AI platforms in the past year and more than half prefer completing purchases inside those platforms, prompting moves toward real-time rewards, embedded-payment benefits and interoperable identity, with examples including Eagle Eye, Dine Brands and PayPal/Perplexity.