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.
Key Points
- 1Highlight shift: AI agents will query catalogs, compare offers and execute purchases autonomously
- 2Undermine human-focused tactics: static points, emails and tiers become invisible to agent decision logic
- 3Require machine-readable rewards, real-time personalization, embedded payments and portable identity for interoperability
Scoring Rationale
Strong industry-wide relevance and actionable guidance, but limited novelty beyond already reported emerging trend coverage.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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