Sales edition
Customers get help from AI before they reach you: an agent that buys for them, or a number that is already prepared.
AI agents are starting to buy online, and many sites block them
Personal AI agents are arriving on the internet at scale. An agent like this can book a flight or a hotel room for you, for example. Apps like OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse make this possible. Muse was downloaded 5 million times in its first month. Agent traffic tripled from August to September.
Many websites block agents. Yelp does not allow AI to make restaurant reservations. People also ran into problems at Pizza Hut. Amazon blocks Muse's agents and is suing Perplexity. A judge recently ruled in Perplexity's favor, but Amazon appealed. Amazon says agents threaten its advertising, because it is harder to tell ads for people and ads for bots apart.
Professor Ethan Mollick thinks sites will eventually let agents in. Almost all agent traffic goes to online shops, and there is money to be made there. Shopify already gives agents their own checkout routes. The rules are still being written. The question of whether companies may block agents or let them negotiate is especially disputed.
Background for subscribersIf you sell online, you may soon be talking to your customer's agent and not to the customer. That agent can ask for prices, negotiate or request a refund, and whether you let agents in or block them is a choice you may already face today. Customers who come with an AI number are also testing whether you know what you are talking about.
Real estate agents and the customer's AI number
Sellers more and more often come with a value from Zillow (a Zestimate) or from ChatGPT or Claude. Real estate agents in the United States explain how they deal with it. Michael Oliver does not take it personally and calls such a value "a well-informed opinion". Daniel Kramp never turns a client away and does not say the number is wrong. He first makes his own comparison, gives a price range and sends comparable homes that are for sale. Kaylie Curtis uses paper lists and a pyramid picture. In it she shows that a price 10% below market value can reach 90% of interested buyers. She prefers to choose homes that sold in the past 30 days. Oliver thinks clients also test whether the agent knows what he is talking about. These are American examples. They cannot simply be applied to the Dutch market.
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