In a sense, the AI agent is a digital manifestation of what occurs in some very wealthy households today. Families that employe domestic staff may have a person or team who takes care of travel arrangements, procures food, secures wellness services, and sources other common household goods and services. These domestic decision makers could be viewed as a “sales channel”, since they are the gatekeeper between the brands and the end consumer. Alternatively, these individuals are also influencers, given that their opinions and recommendations help the end consumers determine what products and services to buy. Given the very limited size of these domestic arrangements, only a tiny fraction of companies market directly to the domestic staff of wealthy families. However, when you scale up this “channel/influencer” model via a digital platform it becomes something much more important. As AI Agents become ubiquitous around the world, like the internet before it, their impact on commerce will grow exponentially.

What accelerated during the COVID pandemic is now common practice. Brands reach consumers through various digital platforms both commercial and social. The consumer then chooses where to make a purchase; Amazon, local story, personal shopper (Instacart, Door Dash), and how to receive the products they want; pick up or home delivery. The marketing touchpoint is primarily between the brand and the end consumer, a person. In the world of Agentic Commerce, the AI Agent becomes a new layer in the decision-making process, which becomes an intermediary between the brands and the end consumer. The new twist is that unlike current intermediaries, a retail buyer or distributor salesperson, this new player is not a person, it’s a neural network of computers that learns on its own. In some cases, the AI Agent will be the customer; it will never be the end consumer, but it could be the customer.

On the surface it appears to be a nearly impossible task; how to convince a computer system, that no one truly understands how it thinks and learns, to believe that a given product or service is the best fit for its mandate. The same could be said about any up-and-coming generation. In the 90’s marketers sat in conference rooms scratching their heads trying to figure out how to sell to Millennials. The largest cohort in nearly a century, born digitally native, mission driven and unlike any generation prior. But at the end of the day Madison Ave figured it out. Since the dawn of sales and marketing, the messaging, narrative and delivery has had to adapt to change. Change from the aging out of the consumer base to changes in communication methodologies to the constantly evolving whims, fads and trends that shape the everyday. The Printing Press killed the Town Criers, Radio impacted Newspapers, Television crushed Radio, the Internet killed Newspapers, Social Media usurped them all. Each time all the stakeholders in the chain had to adapt or perish.

At this juncture it’s only a fool that could tell you how Agentic Commerce will play out. What can be confidently said is that it is here to stay; billions upon billions, maybe trillions of dollars by the time it’s built out, are being invested in the technology and its ecosystem. The technology will create tremendous opportunities and benefits for all stakeholders; brands, suppliers, investors, service providers and consumers. For those that are bold enough and nimble enough to invest, test and learn, and fail fast; this revolution will be a game changer. The dawn of the internet in the mid-1990’s offers a compelling case study. Consider the newspaper business; the early innovators recognized quickly that the internet was a very low-cost medium to deliver the news, share information, and broadcast entertainment while selling ads and creating new revenue streams. The legacy players that hung on to their capital and labor intensive business models died off. Taking a “wait and see” approach may not be the best course of action during this AI revolution. AI and Agentic Commerce is moving so quickly, and its capabilities are so extensive that early adaptors have the potential to capture sizable market share and/or create entirely new markets very quickly. Those who are not embracing this technology today are already falling beyond and they may not even know it yet.

Coil the Spring – be prepared

Copyright: Wellvest Capital, 2025