Meet the AI agents defining the new customer experience

Buying something new can often feel like jumping through hoops. You start with a search query, bounce between sites, comb through reviews, compare prices and shipping details and, several tabs later, you might (or might not) click 'checkout.' The experience — even without leaving the comfort or convenience of your home — is more akin to exhaustion than delight, made worse by a nagging sense of uncertainty and doubt at every turn. For all the cognitive load the online shopping journey can require, you may as well have fought traffic and gone from store to store at the mall.

Here’s the thing: In our latest research on consumer use of AI, we found that 75% of customers were frustrated with this disjointed buying process. Certainly, a big part of that frustration is the mental workout required to make all the decisions along the way: What do I want? Where should I go to get it? What is the right price? But our research shows that the number one reason AI appeals to shoppers comes down to the one thing few of us can say we have enough of: time.

AI promises to solve for both, shortening and streamlining the consumer journey and offering a sense of personalization, expertise and certainty when it comes to making the purchase decision.

Of course, saving time and reducing frustration can mean different things to different people. For one consumer, it might mean AI offering a list of curated products that meet their specific needs. For another, it’s a virtual haggler, the ultimate price-shopping tool that saves them from making a price comparison spreadsheet. Still others want AI to show them the best way to cut the line and get a speedy delivery.

The challenge for chief marketing officers (CMOs) everywhere is how to design experiences for all these consumers — the speed demons, the bargain hunters, the spec geeks and everyone in between. The answer lies in AI agents.

Imagine three types of people a consumer would consult when trying to make a major purchase. Their 'Uncle George', for instance, might have an encyclopedic knowledge of the tech specs and performance ratings for everything from cars to mobile phones. Their friend Jocelyn, meanwhile, would never let them pay more than they should and is always ready with a discount coupon. Finally, brother Steve, the logistics whiz of the family, can cut through red tape and get the fastest delivery. These are three very different capabilities and, in most cases, you’d need to take the time to consult each person separately and synthesize the information to make an informed decision.

What if, however, the uncle, the friend and the brother all worked together to pool their expertise and shortlist the best options, the fastest delivery and the lowest price? Even better, what if they also negotiated the best deal, filled out the forms, placed the order and arranged for delivery at a convenient time?

This vision forms the backbone of the agentic internet. It’s a network of interconnected, AI-powered tools that can autonomously tackle the most complex searching, purchasing and maintenance tasks. The result: a vast reduction in the time and cognitive load required for consumers to make a purchase.

The emergence of the agentic internet will change everything when it comes to how businesses design the customer experience. Old norms — search bars, scrolling sessions, even websites themselves — will give way to new ones as consumers gain what amounts to a personal digital concierge that works with business AI agents to orchestrate complex tasks across the purchase journey.

This isn’t coming in some distant future. Consumer expectations are already evolving. Our research shows that by 2030, over 55% of purchases will be driven by AI-friendly consumers. A true customer-first strategy means designing new interfaces and systems today.

Here are three pivotal questions for customer experience leaders to address:

One thing we know from the current web experience is that people won’t want to manage or work with a bunch of different and unconnected agents. Today, managing multiple tools — from flight booking apps to digital subscriptions — is a hassle. Tomorrow’s consumers will expect their 'super-agent' to act as the orchestrator for all the other AI agents so that Uncle George would work with Jocelyn to find not just the car with the best specs, but also where to buy it for under $30,000.

The first step is to think beyond the website or e-commerce platform. One school of thought is that consumer AI agents will interact with a centralized aggregator site, whose own agents will do the job of seeking out product details, reviews, purchase terms and anything else that consumers themselves do on websites and e-commerce platforms today. If that happens, businesses will have less control over the customer experience. Their websites will need to be optimized for agentic — not just consumer — experiences.

The hardest working agent will be the business’s consumer-facing AI agent that retrieves needed information and feeds it back to the consumer’s AI agent or an aggregated site. These consumer-facing AI agents can’t work alone — they will need to be integrated with all the back-end systems that supply the most up-to-date data and ensure transactions can be completed without glitches.

There are still many unknowns when it comes to consumer AI agents and the future of customer experience. But one thing is sure: Consumers are already turning to AI to discover and purchase products. We forecast that by 2030, AI enthusiasts will wield over $4 trillion in buying power in the US alone.

For CMOs this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The winners won’t just be the businesses that adapt to the agentic internet. They’ll be the ones that innovate, seize the moment and create the next wave of intuitive, human-centred digital experiences.

AI agents are already here. Are you ready to meet them?