In the age of AI agents, your customer may still buy from you, but they may no longer visit you

"For years, companies have assumed that their digital relationship with customers would happen in a place they controlled: their website, their app, their checkout flow, their interface, their carefully optimized funnel. That assumption shaped an enormous amount of corporate behavior."

"The next wave of AI is not just about answering questions better. It is about acting. OpenAI's Operator is designed to go to the web and perform tasks using its own browser, clicking, typing, and scrolling on a user's behalf."

"In the age of AI agents, your customer may still buy from you, but they may no longer visit you. The interface is losing its monopoly."

"Once an AI agent can navigate the web or connect directly into business systems, the customer's primary interface is no longer necessarily your interface. It may be the agent's."

Companies have long relied on controlled digital environments for customer interactions. However, advancements in AI, such as OpenAI's Operator and Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, are changing this dynamic. AI agents can now perform tasks directly on the web, meaning customers may not need to visit company websites or apps to make purchases. This shift indicates a loss of control over the customer journey, as AI agents become the primary interface for decision-making and transactions.

Read at Fast Company