Talk to my AI agent: The new rules of brand value

Seventy-one percent of consumers expect generative AI to influence at least half of their spending decisions over the next 12 months, and 43% put budget and value at the top of their instructions to agents. AI agents will work continuously on the consumer’s behalf: they will break brands down into comparable parts, test claims against reality and steer spending toward the best outcomes. Weak differentiation, inflated pricing and poor fit get exposed instantly. For brands, there is nowhere to hide. But this isn’t only commoditization. Nearly 63% want agents to shop for their “idealized self.” When value is real, agents amplify it. When it isn’t, they surface it.

Sixty-one percent of consumers want an agent that shops across multiple grocery stores. Seventy-one percent want one that plans a complete trip across airlines, hotels and activities. When agents create the shortlist, they direct demand before consumers engage with any brand at all. The moment of choice moves upstream to the decision layer—the standards, data and verification logic that determine what gets chosen. Brands have two options: become the agent of choice, or be chosen by the agent. For brands and retailers building their own agents, the signals are strong: weekly gen AI users are more than twice as likely to want retailers or brands to become the agent of choice than AI-native platforms. The window to decide where to play is open. But the habits forming now will be hard to break.

Consumers now expect brands to feel as helpful and personal as the AI they use. Three in five weekly gen AI users say they feel a deeper emotional connection to AI than a year ago, and 64% say it helps them feel seen, heard and understood. That raises the bar for intimacy, relevance and experience in the moments consumers still choose directly. But loyalty is conditional: 37% of behaviorally loyal shoppers would let an AI agent switch from a preferred brand  if it finds a better fit. In parallel, agents build trust differently. They reward proof: verified claims, clean product data, transparent pricing, reliable availability and successful fulfillment. Brands must earn value twice: once with the consumer’s heart, and once with the agent’s algorithm.

Consumers that use agents will no longer tolerate gaps between promise and reality. Winning starts with shopper intent: the job to be done, the constraints managed and the trade-offs that define “best”. Capture agentic signals, such as prompt patterns, comparison criteria, why agents shortlist or reject you, and where fulfillment breaks. Connect these with first-party, service and retailer signals, then turn them into offer, claims and experiences that hold up when an agent compares on proof, value and delivery, not storytelling.

Build agentic engine optimization (AEO) alongside SEO, generative engine optimization (GEO) and commerce. Make every product, claim, price and proof point structured, machine-readable and verifiable. Track whether you appear in agent recommendations, make the final cut and can be selected without friction. Shift partner conversations from placement to joint discoverability.

Whether a consumer engages directly or through an agent, they experience one promise. If the data is wrong, the promise doesn't match reality or recovery is slow, the brand takes the hit. Make consumer intelligence the spine of integrated planning across innovation, sales, commerce, service and supply. Deploy internal agents to close the gap between promise and delivery. When switching is instant, operational excellence is brand equity.