How AI Agents Are Changing Shopping and Marketing

AI agents can change how people discover products, compare brands, and decide what to buy. That raises a practical question for marketers: what should a brand do when software helps make the choice?

In this conversation, Mike Mallazzo, general manager of Alephic Media, makes the case for better product information, a consistent brand, and shopping experiences people want to spend time in. He also discusses his early experience with ChatGPT ads and where advertising aimed at agents might go.

Four takeaways

• Make products easy to understand. Rich descriptions and consistent information help people and agents understand what a product does and who it is for. Mike sees this as useful marketing work whatever the pace of adoption.
• Build demand for the brand itself. A customer who asks an agent for a specific brand gives it a different job from one asked to find an unspecified product. Mike argues that brand preference remains valuable as more decisions involve AI.
• Use faster experimentation while it offers an advantage. Mike expects AI to lower the cost of producing and testing ads. He sees an opportunity for early adopters, while predicting that many of those advantages will narrow as the tools become common.
• Keep discovery enjoyable. Agents can remove repetitive work and introduce people to products they would otherwise miss. Mike argues that browsing, anticipation, and choosing are also parts of shopping that people value.

In this episode

00:00 Meet Mike Mallazzo

An introduction to Mike and the question running through the episode: how marketing changes when agents help people make purchasing decisions.

00:35 What agentic commerce means

Mike separates three uses of AI in commerce: completing purchases, interpreting complex product searches, and improving retailers' recommendations.

02:48 Why agentic commerce is accelerating

He describes the recent launches and retailer partnerships that have made the idea feel more immediate, alongside the access limits agents still face.