Apple retail pioneer Ron Johnson pushes back on AI agent shopping

Ron Johnson, the retail executive who built Apple's store network, said in an interview that AI will improve the online shopping experience but is unlikely to change how people shop, pushing back on the industry's bet on agentic commerce.

Johnson joined Apple in 2000 to build its retail business and helped create a store network that became central to how Apple sells products. Asked whether he could imagine someone letting an AI agent choose and buy a $1,000 or $2,000 laptop without visiting a website or store, he said, "Honestly, nobody's going to do that." Buying a laptop is too personal a purchase, he argued; buyers want to feel its weight, see the display, and decide which size works for them.

Tech giants are increasingly pushing AI agents into shopping. Google has introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, a standard designed to help AI agents take consumers from product discovery to checkout, while OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a shopping destination where users can research, compare, and in some cases buy products without leaving the chatbot. Johnson acknowledged that AI may narrow choices, but said many consumers would still want to experience a product themselves before spending that kind of money. "AI will never be able to have you physically experience a product," he said, adding that agents will instead make shoppers more informed before they walk into a store.

Despite his skepticism about AI reshaping shopping, Johnson said he remains an AI optimist and believes Steve Jobs would have embraced the technology, but not as a substitute for human judgment. "There's no substitute for human intuition," he said.