Framework: How AI Agents Will Transform the Decision-Making Funnel

A core part of my thesis is how AI agents will make decisions on behalf of consumers in major stages, here’s how it will go down:

AI Transforms the Decision Funnel by Leading Human Buyers
Let’s walk through the stages of this transformed decision funnel:

• Awareness Stage: As AI agents advance, humans will increasingly turn to it to understand their needs and pain points. Taking a leap further, we can imagine a future where the agent not only responds to human prompts but also proactively educates users. Picture your AI agent suggesting a personalized diet plan based on your health data, serving you with information before you even thought to ask for it.

• Engagement Stage: Soon, we will find ourselves prompting the agent for detailed information about solutions. Yet, the future holds an even more proactive agent that initiates dialogue with users, offering solutions to their potential needs. Imagine your AI agent arranging a travel itinerary for your upcoming holiday, even before you realized you needed help.

• Consideration Stage: The phase where humans usually compare products and read reviews is about to undergo a transformation. In the near future, humans will task agents with these comparisons. But the real game-changer will be when AI agents independently shop and auto-compare on our behalf. Consider an AI agent saying, “I’ve compared various headphones, and this model suits your preferences best.”

• Purchase Stage: The typical e-commerce transactions that happen via websites and online retailers will progressively shift into AI apps (like into GPT or Claude). Eventually, AI agents will handle (basic) purchases on your behalf, efficiently streamlining the process. Imagine receiving a message from your AI agent: “I’ve placed an order for your favorite brand of coffee.”
  
  I imagine that humans will continue to be very involved in complex, high-consideration decisions, however they will task their AI agents to gather information, research, and compare prices and outcomes to help the human make that complex decision.

Don’t just take my word for it. As Bill Gates astutely noted (CNBC):

“Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again.”

These words paint a clear picture of where we’re headed: AI is no longer a sidekick, but rather a leading actor in the decision making process. I’ve penned a number of articles that expand on this topic on my blog, web strategy.