One signal

AI agents could shift online commerce away from advertising and towards paying directly for access, argues the author of a new essay. The piece points to platforms taking opposing positions on whether to block or welcome AI shopping agents.

The argument is that if agents do the browsing and buying, businesses may need a different way to fund access than showing adverts to people. The author predicts that cash and transactions could take the place of ad views. It’s a prediction, not a settled business-model forecast. But it gets at a real question raised by AI agents: if software does the shopping, who pays for the services and information it uses?

Discuss: If AI agents do more of our shopping, should the services they use charge the agent or its user, or keep access free and funded by adverts?

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