Inside agentic commerce and the new rules of customer influence

AI agents are already influencing what we buy. Within the next year or so, we could be handing them our wallets too.

So, what should brands be doing right now to prepare for this shift to agentic commerce? We sat down with Dirk Jan van der Pol, Head of Commerce, and Rob Hoekman, CTO EMEA, to unpack what we call the Delegation Economy – where buying decisions increasingly move between people and AI. They explore what it means for discovery, trust and the customer relationship, and share three actions marketing leaders can take now.

Delegation will become invisible 

Delegation is becoming a defining behavior of this decade. But the act itself isn’t new. We’ve always handed tasks to other people, institutions and technology. What’s changing is who, or what, we’re delegating to. And increasingly, we may not even notice we’re doing it.

“Agentic technology will operate quietly behind familiar interfaces,” explains Dirk Jan. “Imagine a grocery app that knows your preferences and budget, continuously compares prices across retailers and recommends the best option – or simply buys it. You’re delegating to AI, but it doesn’t feel like AI. It just feels convenient. The more agentic technology gets abstracted behind intuitive interfaces, the more invisible delegation becomes. That’s where agentic commerce starts to get really interesting.”

Search is losing its grip 

So how do you get found when your customer may no longer be the one searching? “The way we think about search is already becoming outdated,” says Rob. “We’re moving from search optimization to ‘find optimization’: where AI doesn’t just return results, but finds, evaluates and presents the best answer or option for you.”

That means embracing GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), so content and data can be surfaced and recommended by AI systems and agents. “It’s not just about being findable anymore. You need to be capable of being evaluated and recommended,” adds Rob. “Can an agent understand what you offer, who it’s for, what it costs and why it’s the right option for a particular customer? If not, you’re out of the running before the decision even reaches them.”

Becoming AI-recommendable

This requires two equally important capabilities, built in parallel. “I call them technical visibility and human advocacy,” explains Dirk Jan.

Technical visibility comes down to three things:

For brands, that changes more than search. It puts the direct customer relationship at stake. Until now, brands have invested heavily in being present and persuasive across every touchpoint – from search and social to product pages and personalized communications. But when an agent enters that journey, many of those touchpoints no longer reach the consumer directly. They reach the agent first.

Don’t underestimate human advocacy 

Being understood by AI matters. But being preferred by people may matter even more.

“The most powerful way to be recommended by an agent is for the customer to have already chosen you,” explains Rob. “As people use AI agents, they will increasingly signal the brands they prefer and trust – explicitly through instructions and preferences, or simply through the choices they make over time.”

That gives brand building a new role in agentic commerce. “The preference you earn with a person today could become an instruction their agent acts on tomorrow. Strong brands don’t just influence the human decision. They can influence the decisions people delegate too.”

“Preference is still earned the old-fashioned way: through visibility, trust and experiences worth advocating for.”
Rob Hoekman, CTO EMEA

Humans still respond to stories, experiences and emotional connection. Agents need structured, accurate data they can understand and evaluate. The paradox? As agents play a bigger role in decision-making, brand building becomes more important, not less.

Agentic commerce is a business transformation

Agentic commerce isn’t something the marketing team – or the technology team – can solve alone. It raises questions across the business. Is product data structured so agents can understand it? What can be shared with third-party agents? How will success be measured when familiar marketing metrics start to change?

“These aren’t just marketing questions,” says Dirk Jan. “They’re board-level questions that require organization-wide answers.”

That means bringing commercial, marketing and technology leadership together around a shared view of how customer relationships will evolve. The businesses making the most progress are already treating agentic commerce as a business transformation, not simply a technology project.

And there’s a good reason to start now. Third-party agents that can shop across retailers on behalf of consumers are not yet operating at scale. That gives brands a window to build the capabilities, customer understanding and trust they will need before they are.

“If I were sitting across from a CMO today, my first piece of advice would be simple: step in and take ownership.”
Dirk Jan van der Pol, Head of Commerce

Three actions CMOs can take now

The CMO cannot afford to wait for IT to start their own transformation journey. Says Dirk Jan: “The business strategy, the marketing reinvention and the customer relationship evolution need to develop in parallel. By the time the technical infrastructure is ready, the business needs to be ready too.”

He recommends three concrete actions:

Build trust before you need it

There’s a window now for brands to build first-party agent trust directly with their customers. Every useful agentic experience can help people become more comfortable delegating to your brand, while giving you richer insight into their preferences.

That matters when third-party agents increasingly enter the journey. Brands that have already earned trust and preference won’t be starting from scratch – they’ll be better placed to remain part of the choices customers delegate.

Ready to see what agentic commerce means for your business? 

We can help you understand where you stand, where the opportunities lie and what to do next.