For decades, ecommerce focused on selling to consumers, with brands working to tailor messaging, benefits and media to the consumer profile. However, this is starting to change.
Why?
Gartner predicts that traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as AI assistants take on more of the answers that consumers are looking for.
On other examples, Amazon is offering Rufus to help shoppers as Walmart offers Sparky!
What this means is that in a few years, the buyer will no longer be the consumer alone, but increasingly, the buyer will be the agent that represents the consumer. And unless you serve these agents with the right information for their liking, you will not be included in the short list of answers, meaning complete loss of exposure.
What is an “AI agent”?
It’s an AI based intermediary with decision-making power over the purchase decision.
AI shopping assistants that compare products and recommend the best ones for you, based on the needs and priorities you provided.
Some of these AI agents will soon also be able to complete a purchase for you and have it delivered.
This shift driven by the following reasons –
- Wealth of information and alternatives: Consumers face infinite options, specs, prices, and options. AI Agents compress that complexity into a short list or action
- Convenience and speed: One-click checkouts, auto-ship, etc. act faster than people and get the consumers what they want faster
- The weakening of brand loyalty: In a post Covid era, there’s lots of research that shows most consumers are less loyal to brands, opting for availability, price, shipping speed, and trust signals
The impact on brands
For brands, the implications are profound:
- More workload, less focus: On one hand you need to continue to deliver value and loyalty to consumers, and on the other hand you need to build your rapport with the AI agent
- Losing loyalty: In a world where there is less interaction between consumers and your brand, how do you keep them engaged?
- Shifting from emotions to formulas: Consumer marketing is more focused on the right messaging, media and pricing. AI Agents care about the specifications they need to meet, quality measures maybe and commercial aspects
Practical moves to become agent-first
- Optimize for structured data and feeds. Clean titles, attributes, and taxonomy; Usa as many industry identifiers such as accurate MPNs, UPC, GTINs and make sure you use consistent terminology.
- Treat creators and affiliates as information distribution infrastructure. These can be great multipliers of trust for an AI Agent. Clear briefs and concierge support can turn them into high-intent messaging relays for your catalog.
- Invest in organic coverage sources like discussions on forums and credible blogs. Drive consumers to engage with these and leave comments and ratings. These organic sources are highly regarded by AI Agents.
- Continue to focus on operational excellence and key factors that humans and agents care about like competitive pricing, availability, shipping time and cost, return policies, and review velocity.
- If you are selling via partners, make sure they are aware of the above as well and that their listings follow these guidelines
Conclusion
We’re in a transitional point in time, where we need to keep consumers engaged and supported, but to get AI Agents to recognize our brand as well. Short term this means more work, perhaps increase costs. However, ignoring the AI Agent movement could cost you shelf space in the digital aisles where decisions happen. Brands that want to capture the opportunity need to design for a dual journey: win the agent’s calculus and win the consumer’s heart. In the era of agentic commerce, the most successful brands should speak fluently to both. Brands that start early have a better shot at success.
