AI agents, GEO and data quality: This is what the online Comerciante survey 2026 brings

Payrexx: The Online Merchant Survey 2026 is finally here. Prof. Dr. Darius Zumstein, can you summarise the three most important insights for us?

Prof. Dr. Darius Zumstein: For me, the greatest highlight is very clear: AI agents are coming – and extremely fast. A year ago, this was hardly a topic; back then, it was mainly about using AI for individual use cases such as text, image, or video generation. Now we are reaching a completely new level.

Secondly, discoverability in generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity has become central. Every SME and every online merchant no longer needs to be found only in classic search engines, but also in AI systems. Here, a completely new Marketing discipline is emerging with Generative Engine Marketing (GEM) – consisting of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and, most recently, Generative Engine Advertising (GEA).

The third focal point of our study was the degree of automation: To what extent are processes in Swiss e-commerce companies already manual, semi-automated, or fully automated, and where are they already using AI agents?

If you had to give concrete recommendations for action: What should Swiss online shops ideally implement in their operations starting tomorrow?

The first and most important thing is: Merchants must have their data under control. Product data, availability, delivery conditions, and returns information must be available cleanly and in a structured format on the website. Crawlers and bots from AI systems and search engines visit product detail pages daily. Anyone who has poor data quality here will not only run into problems with automation and digitalisation, but is simply not "agent-ready".

My appeal to merchants is therefore: Invest in data quality and interfaces! Technical standards such as UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) or MCP are evolving rapidly. It is essential to keep an eye on these, regularly check how much traffic is already coming via AI systems, remain open and curious, pursue internal training, and establish clear responsibilities for AI within the company.

Big Tech companies are developing rapidly at the same time. What trends do you see among providers like Google or OpenAI?

For example, Google introduced AI Mode in May, which has a direct impact on every Marketing department. In addition, Agentic Checkout was announced. In the USA, it is already possible for consumers to place products directly into a universal shopping cart on Google and pay via Google Pay.

Payment service providers and online shops must also ask themselves: What happens when customers process their transactions directly via AI systems or search engines in the future? Currently, most consumers use AI primarily for searching, comparing, and looking for offers. It will take a little while until purchasing is completely delegated to agents. Among the younger target group, however, we can already clearly see this shift.

According to the Online Merchant Survey 2026, Payrexx is the most widely used PSP in Switzerland.

More than 470 Comerciante participated in the ninth edition of the Online Merchant Survey. What significance does the study have for the Swiss market?

It is the largest and only representative e-commerce study in Switzerland that covers such a wide range of industries – from food to home & living, sports, health, and the construction industry. From small hobby shops to large providers like Galaxus, Brack, or Zalando, everything is included.

For me as a researcher, it is particularly important to see where merchants are currently facing challenges. The challenges have changed significantly: Following the pandemic years, today's focus is on a difficult market environment, global competition, Temu, price pressure, and the question of how to remain relevant to customers.

Do you have tips for merchants on how they can best network and stay informed?

First: Participate in studies, because sharing knowledge helps everyone! Second, the old rule applies: "Markets are conversations." Merchants should get out of their silos, attend industry events, join specialist groups, and cultivate their network – for example, in trade associations such as the retail association. And third: Use LinkedIn! In our networked world, isolation is the death of any trade.

Looking ahead: Which topics will be central to e-commerce and next year's survey?

In addition to technology, the human factor is moving strongly back into focus. The key phrase is Human in the Loop: How do humans and machines work together optimally? Which tasks are delegated, and where do humans retain leadership? It is about AI sovereignty, critical thinking, transparency, data protection, and how organisations and teams adapt sustainably.

In addition, this development offers enormous opportunities for SMEs. Through modern tools such as code assistants, even small teams can build innovative solutions and prototypes without massive IT budgets. If small SMEs use these tools cleverly, they can keep up excellently with the major players.