The customer experience is evolving from chatbots to proactive AI agents that act on our behalf – skipping all the browsing and searching on the web. Is your business already set up for a world where your next customer isn't human? This new reality requires a fundamental mindset shift, as customers expect more than just service – they expect automated and personalized outcomes.
Welcome to the third and final article of our Simon-Kucher Elevate AI series. In our first two articles, we explored the critical role of a robust AI data strategy. We also debunked the common myths that derail AI implementation. Now, we look forward to the next frontier: the rise of AI agents. These systems are causing a seismic shift in the customer experience (CX), fundamentally altering the relationship between brands and consumers.
The next evolution of the customer experience
The evolution of customer experience (CX) in the 2020s is accelerating at a breathtaking pace. For years, the gold standard was an omnichannel strategy to ensure a consistent presence. Then came AI-enhanced journeys, where chatbots and recommendation engines added a layer of automation.
Now, we are on the brink of the next great leap: agentic experiences.
AI agents are more than just assistants; they are becoming the "second user of the web." The most fascinating sci-fi concepts are turning into reality these days – while the age of the personal AI assistants arrives. These AI agents can understand complex, multi-step goals and execute them on behalf of a person. Think of them as personal concierges – capable of fulfilling nearly any customer wish or desire.
But the transition to AI agents also marks a fundamental change in how customer journeys are shaped. Soon, customers won't just interact with your brand. They will set up their personal AI agents to research options, prepare purchase decisions, compare products and services, and manage their accounts.
As the technological maturity is arriving at this moment for the first time – competitive pressure is mounting, and customer satisfaction will soon be defined by how well your business can serve these non-human users.
The most forward-thinking companies are already not waiting for the revolution – they are actively building the infrastructure to lead it.
The vanguard: Companies getting ready for AI agents
While a fully agent-driven world is still slowly emerging, the foundational technologies are already here, signaling an imminent shift:
- The technology platforms: Tech giants are building the engines that will power this revolution. Google’s Project Astra and OpenAI’s GPT-4o showcase agents that can process images, understand, and reason in real-time. They understand context and user intent with an astonishing human-like touch. Startups are even building agent-native hardware, aiming to create devices whose primary interface is an AI assistant.
- The service pioneers: Many leading service-oriented companies are actively building AI agent-friendly interfaces to ensure their products and services are visible and accessible in this new ecosystem:
- Klarna has developed an AI shopping assistant that can be integrated into other platforms. This allows users to discover and purchase products through conversational interfaces.
- Expedia and Kayak have already built AI plugins for ChatGPT. They enable users to plan and book complex travel itineraries through their AI agent without visiting any websites directly.
- Shopify is arming its millions of merchants with AI tools. This effectively creates an army of small businesses whose inventory and services are structured and ready to be accessed by customer agents.
The above examples illustrate a critical point: the race is on to become the preferred choice not just for human users – but for the AI agents that will soon represent them.
For most B2C but also B2B companies, it’s time to act now. Preparing for this agent-driven future is not merely a defensive measure. For companies that move decisively, it represents a significant opportunity to redefine customer value and build a lasting competitive advantage.
The Opportunity: Unlocking nearly unlimited customer value with AI agents
For businesses that are willing to prepare for the new frontiers of CX, this new paradigm presents significant opportunities to create value for their own customer base. Three core areas stand out …
Hyper-personalization at scale
Today, personalization is often limited to simple A/B website layouts and individualized social media content. AI agents will shatter these limitations. They will have deep, permissioned access to an individual's customer data – including calendars, preferences, and budgets. With this information, agents can create a level of convenience that offers a new level of customer experience that was hard to imagine a few years ago. Just think about an agent that books your flight. It could also arrange ground transportation, reserve a table at a preferred restaurant, and order groceries for your return – all optimized for your schedule. Whenever you need it, whenever you want – saving any customer tremendous amounts of time.
New commercial models and revenue streams
The shift to an agent-driven economy opens the door for entirely new business models. Companies can move beyond one-off transactions and create convenient subscription-based services. Customers might pay for their agent to have premium access to a wider range of data or capabilities – such as exclusive deals. Ecosystem partnerships will flourish as brands collaborate to offer bundled services through a single agent interface. Furthermore, providing clean and valuable data to third-party agents will likely become a significant revenue stream for data-rich organizations.
Radical efficiency in customer service and sales
Today’s customer service is often a reactive process. AI agents will enable a proactive model that anticipates any customer’s needs. They can monitor a product or service for the customer, detect potential issues, and autonomously initiate a solution. This could mean rebooking a canceled flight or scheduling a repair for a home appliance. Such agent behaviors drive massive efficiency gains and foster positive customer experiences – by solving problems before the customer is even aware of them. The result will be enhanced customer loyalty to your brand.
However, capitalizing on this enormous potential requires a deep-level understanding of the profound strategic risks involved and potential pitfalls. The same mechanisms that enable personalization also introduce new vulnerabilities that leaders must navigate with care.
The challenge: Navigating the risks that arrive with AI agents
While the opportunities are vast, the strategic hurdles are equally significant. Companies that fail to adapt to the new world of AI-agents now will risk becoming invisible – and soon to be forgotten.
The fight for brand relevance and customer relationships
If a customer’s agent simply chooses the "best"-value option based on an algorithm – what happens to brand value? The direct relationship with the customer, built over years through marketing and social media, is suddenly mediated by a third party whose primary goal is to optimize for its user – often by saving them money. The risk of commoditization is enormous. Businesses must find new ways to build long-term customer relationships – for example, through voucher and loyalty programs – when the primary "user" is just another machine. But how do you make customers ever feel a connection to your brand when they never visit your website?
Building trust and transparency
For a user to delegate decisions to an AI agent, they must trust it implicitly. This trust extends to the companies the agent would interact with. Businesses will need to operate with radical transparency. They must provide clear, machine-readable information on how their AI systems work – how they use data and how they ensure fairness. A single breach of trust could lead to being blacklisted by a vast network of customer agents, effectively cutting off a major sales channel to the market.
Data sovereignty and the new regulatory maze
An agent-driven world operates on an unprecedented flow of personal data. This creates complex new challenges around privacy, security, and regulation. Companies must navigate many crucial questions: Who owns the data exchanged between agents? Who is liable if an agent makes a mistake? How do you comply with an evolving territory of AI-specific laws? Establishing robust data governance will no longer be just a best practice; it will be a prerequisite for doing business.
Navigating these pitfalls is not a matter of chance, but of deliberate strategic design. It requires moving beyond theoretical discussions and taking actionable steps to prepare your organization. Becoming 'agent-ready' is an active process that must begin now.
Strategic imperatives: How to get "agent-ready"
The urgent strategic question for leaders is no longer "Should we use AI?" but "Is our business ready for a world run by AI agents?" From the perspective, our Simon-Kucher Elevate experts, “agent-readiness” requires immediate action on three strategic fronts:
- Build a machine-readable foundation: Your data, APIs, and services must be structured so that AI agents can easily understand them. This means investing in a robust, well-documented technical layer that exposes your inventory and pricing in a standardized format. Without clear data standards and synchronized systems, your offerings will be invisible or unusable to AI agents.
- Develop a customer-centric AI strategy: You must define how your own AI agents will interact with your customers' agents. This strategy must be built on a foundation of customer centricity to ensure every interaction delivers a positive experience and solves real-world problems.
- Establish governance and ethics: Create a clear framework for transparency, data security, and accountability. This will help you meet customer expectations and build the trust necessary for them to allow their agents to do business with you.
These strategic imperatives represent the blueprint for your success. Yet, knowing the blueprint is different from creating the systems needed. The necessary transformation touches every part of your business – from commercial strategy to technology architecture.
This is precisely where a strategic partner becomes essential.
How Simon-Kucher Elevate bridges the gap
While the principles of getting "agent-ready" may seem clear, translating them into a concrete commercial strategy is a complex challenge. At Simon-Kucher Elevate, we specialize in helping businesses navigate these disruptive shifts. Our experts support you to transcend the gap between technological potential and real-world commercial success by …
- Crafting a commercial strategy for an agent-driven world: We go beyond the technology to help you answer critical business questions. How will you price your products and services when an agent is the buyer? What new business models can you create? How do you maintain brand differentiation and build customer loyalty?
- Building the "agent-ready" technical foundation: Our data strategy experts work with you to build the robust, machine-readable data foundation that AI requires. We help you structure your customer data and APIs so that your offerings are not just visible but preferred by third-party AI agents.
- Designing a customer-centric agent experience: We leverage our expertise in behavioral science and customer experience design to help you create an agent strategy that builds real trust. Our experts help you design interactions that make customers feel valued and understood, fostering the long-term relationships that drive sustainable growth.
Want to know more? Get in touch with our CX specialists at Simon-Kucher Elevate
No other consultancy knows more about growth than we do. We live, breathe, and drive tangible growth, running over 1,500 projects every year. Within our digital practice, Simon-Kucher Elevate, our practitioners leverage data, technology, and design to help you commercialize your customer experience (CX) strategy. We have:
- Experience of over 500 digital strategy and use case implementation projects with positive EBITDA impact.
- A unique combination of industry expertise and AI know-how to tailor AI agent use cases for commercial impact.
- A database with a longlist of use cases and KPIs to benchmark your progress and define what a great customer experience looks like in your industry.
- A proven ability to translate strategic goals into data-related KPIs to monitor the impact of your agent-driven CX initiatives.
The agent-driven future is not a distant concept; it's a strategic reality that requires action today. To learn how we can help your organization become "agent-ready," contact our experts today.
