Boston Consulting Group's latest report argues that AI-powered agents are already making purchase decisions on behalf of consumers, and most marketing strategies are not built for a world where the customer is a machine.
When the customer is a machine, your brand story matters less than your structured data.
Boston Consulting Group published a report this week arguing that the next disruption in marketing is not about how businesses use AI. It is about how customers use it.
The concept is "agentic customers." These are consumers who delegate purchase research, comparison and even transactions to AI agents. Think ChatGPT recommending a specific product, a personal AI assistant rebooking your regular supplies, or an agent scanning subscription options and switching providers automatically. BCG estimates that by 2027, up to 25% of online purchase decisions in developed markets will involve an AI agent at some point in the journey.
Of online purchase decisions expected to involve AI agents by 2027, according to BCG
This is not theoretical. Google's AI Overviews already synthesise product recommendations. Apple Intelligence summarises reviews and surfaces purchase options. Amazon's Rufus answers product questions and guides buying decisions. These are early-stage agents, but they are already shaping what consumers see, consider and buy.
The implications for marketing are significant. Traditional brand awareness works because humans remember ads, recognise logos and develop preferences over time. An AI agent does not care about your television spot. It cares about your product specifications, pricing structure, availability data and review sentiment. The marketing strategies that win with agentic customers look more like SEO and data management than creative campaigns.
Why it matters
Most Australian businesses are still optimising for human decision-makers. Their websites assume a person is browsing. Their content assumes someone is reading. Their conversion funnels assume emotional triggers and social proof drive action. None of those assumptions hold when the "customer" is an algorithm comparing structured product data across providers.
BCG's report is not saying human customers disappear. It is saying a growing share of the purchase journey will be mediated by AI, and businesses that are not machine-readable will become invisible to that layer. This is the same pattern that played out with search engines 20 years ago. Businesses that did not optimise for Google became invisible to a generation of buyers. The agentic layer is the next version of that.
What to do about it
The agentic customer is not coming. It is already here, just unevenly distributed.