AI First with Adam and Andy

AI agents are rapidly transforming how consumers interact with the internet, collapsing traditional steps like search, comparison, and decision-making into a single, agent-driven workflow. With a growing majority of consumers already using AI tools, this shift is not incremental, it represents a structural change in digital behavior, where agents increasingly act as the primary interface between users and brands.

Emerging use cases, from personalized, AI-generated shopping environments to automated task execution like meal planning and travel booking, highlight how agents are redefining the customer journey. While payment authorization remains a temporary constraint, the trajectory toward fully autonomous transactions is clear and expected to accelerate within months.

For executives, this signals a fundamental shift in how brands compete and engage. Success will depend on visibility within AI-driven discovery, ensuring platforms are accessible to agents, and adapting business models to an agent-mediated ecosystem. As agents take over browsing and decisioning, the traditional web experience is being re-architected in real time.

What is AI First with Adam and Andy?

AI First with Adam and Andy: Inspiring Business Leaders to Make AI First Moves is a dynamic podcast focused on the unprecedented potential of AI and how business leaders can harness it to transform their companies. Each episode dives into real-world examples of AI deployments, the "holy shit" moments where AI changes everything, and the steps leaders need to take to stay ahead. It’s bold, actionable, and emphasizes the exponential acceleration of AI, inspiring CEOs to make AI-first moves before they fall behind.

Andy Sack (00:00)
I set up my own open-claw instance.

I had already previously used Cowork to book a hotel.

And really, from a consumer perspective, think the next leap, because people are using, as McKinsey suggested, the research of ratings and reviews, the comparison of either products or sites, that's all happening into one agentic thing. Really, the gating factor is financial information and credit card information. So I used an agent to book hotel. It went to the website.

entered the dates, it put everything in, but that last step of financial information and clicking buy, I did not do yet. And I think that's coming within 90 days, right? Like, it's hard to imagine. I mean, it's coming for sure this year.

Adam Brotman (00:49)
Yeah.

Andy Sack (00:50)
This is AI First with Adam and Andy, the show that takes you straight to the front lines of AI innovation and business. I'm Andy Sack alongside my cohost, Adam Brotman. Each episode, we bring you candid conversations with business leaders, transforming their businesses with AI. No fluff, just real talk, actionable use cases and insights for you.

Today we're going to be talking about how radical consumer behavior has changed since really the beginning of the year.

And, and it's a result of agents in 2026. remember a year ago, we had Neil Patel on and we were talking about GEO, generative engine optimization, replacing SEO. And at that time, Neil suggested that consumer behavior hadn't changed that much. But today, consumer behavior is changing in the way in which consumers are shopping is changing. I think that the

Adam Brotman (01:41)
All right.

Andy Sack (01:54)
The data said that 70 % of US consumers have used at least one AI tool in the past three months. And McKinsey has said that the shift in consumer behavior is structural, meaning search, comparison, and consideration have been combined all into one.

agentic mediated step. So with that, Adam was sharing a story this weekend, and I was like, we should talk about how agents change consumer behavior and whether it's the death of the internet. So Adam, do you want to share what you and Addie did this weekend and what it made you think about?

Adam Brotman (02:31)
Yeah, let me share the story. And then let's go back to, think, the really important questions and points you just made about what does this mean for the internet in general? What does this mean for shopping, SEO, for brands? So last night, I was with my daughter, and we were

I had my personal agent that I've created, which I call Jeff. So Jeff and I and Addy were on the couch, and we were just talking about.

shopping and these particular stuffed animals that Addie likes called Jelly Cats that she's into. And Addie was like, hey, ask your agent to, which is amazing that she's just so agent native. She's like, ask your agent.

to help put together a curated list of all the Easter-themed jelly cat stuffies for me so I can review them, so I can pester you for which Easter-themed jelly cat to buy. And I was like, OK, I'm just texting on my phone with my agent. And I was like, hey, Addie wants to do this, and she wants to do this. And the agent goes out and does the research.

and comes back with a curated list. And Addy specifically asked for photos and stuff so she could browse it properly. I did the research and I put it together in a custom VibeCoded web page for you that organizes them, merchandise them with links, with its own,

custom flair for, you know, knows that Addison likes pink and knows what we were doing. And I just stared at this page. I sent it to you, Andy. and I was like, this is amazing. Not only did the agent do these...

Andy Sack (04:11)
And so this was

multiple websites, data from multiple websites coming together into a custom e-commerce site for Addy.

Adam Brotman (04:18)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah, in particular in this case, it was mostly focused on the Jelly Cat website because, you know, but you're right, is multiple websites, because ones that are out of of print, so to speak, that have been retired might be sitting on eBay or StockX. And so it was like doing a broad search and then putting it all together, not just as a report, but as a custom web page that you could shop from effectively. It actually was links back. So, you know, you could go from that custom web page back to those sites.

So it wasn't like the sites weren't important. They played a role in both the research stage and if Addy wanted to, or I wanted to buy one of these things, you'd actually click through and still need the site to buy it from at this stage. But the shopping experience was conversational with the agent. The agent did all the work. The agent then re-merchandised it separately from how Jelly Cat would and...

And the shopping was happening on a custom website, vibe coded by the agent after having done custom research for us, all based on a voice text conversation while we were doing something else together on the couch. And this was just sort of a side note, hey, Jeff, can you do this thing? So that's the future in a lot of ways of shopping on the internet and of brand interactions on the internet where there's an agent in the mix, an agent that's customizing for you.

And it really changes, I think, how brands have to understand sort of the interaction model online is gonna change dramatically. And that means the brand relationship is gonna change and you have to take agents into account in 2026 and beyond in a way I don't think you ever had to in the past.

Andy Sack (05:56)
I agree, when Adam shared that story with me, I mean, he was already talking about the change in consumer behavior and I was like, yeah, it just makes me think about my own behavior. Again, anecdotal, not to generalize to the broader take yet, I set up this weekend, I set up my own open-claw instance.

I had already previously used Cowork to book a hotel.

And really, from a consumer perspective, think the next leap, because people are using, as McKinsey suggested, the research of ratings and reviews, the comparison of either products or sites, that's all happening into one agentic thing. Really, the gating factor is financial information and credit card information. So I used an agent to book hotel. It went to the website.

entered the dates, it put everything in, but that last step of financial information and clicking buy, I did not do yet. And I think that's coming within 90 days, right? Like, it's hard to imagine. I mean, it's coming for sure this year. So.

Adam Brotman (07:01)
Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's true. I have another example that I can give to your point of a friend of mine. She was using Claude Cowork, like you, to do meal planning. And she was like, I just wish I could go that extra step of not just meal planning, but go to Instacart and do my shopping from it. least help me with putting everything

in my basket on Instacart. And I was like, yeah, why don't you just do the browser extension on Claude Cowork, the Chrome browser extension, and just like go log in for Cowork to Instacart, and it'll just complete the step of all your meal planning. Plus, it'll like go to Instacart and get it all ready for you. And then she was like, my god, you saved me hours a week by just telling me about, she was already using Cowork, but about the browser extension.

And then, but she wasn't, Andy, to your point. I said, did you have it buy it and complete the transaction? She said, no, no, no. I told it to let me come back in and take over the browser control when it came to the actual buying of it for security reasons and other things. So I do think you're right that people are not ready to give our credit cards to the agent yet, although.

Yeah, this year, I'm guessing people will start to do it. I remember when I was afraid to put a credit card information into the World Wide Web at once upon a time. And then you got over that fear. At some point, enough people did it, and enough established companies claimed that it was safe. And your credit card companies would tell you that they'd rebate you if there was fraud. And so I think we'll get there. I think that they've, so let's go back and for our audience, kind of frame up what we're talking about.

Andy Sack (08:32)
Yeah.

Adam Brotman (08:35)
Let's go back to the beginning of what you said. I read a quote similar to your stats you gave or research you gave at the beginning that 2 thirds of Gen Zers and more than half of millennials are now using large language models to do research of products. So that's back to the Neil Patel SEO versus GEO. Instead of using Google, the old Google, not

Google AI overviews, the old Google to do research, people are just turning to an agent, but it's not really a, it's really just a chatbot, but a chatbot with a tool, in this case search, and that's the same with co-work, like that's doing research for you, doing shopping search for you, that's becoming like mainstream, like that part, okay? The part that's not yet mainstream is,

a full on personal agent that knows you, understands your preferences, and can do the kind of things that, the example I gave, where it's like, gonna do the homework and go that next step of putting things in your shopping basket, vibe coding a custom webpage that merchandises it for you. Those are from coworker, OpenClaw, those are much more agentic than just a research agent.

chat bot that does the work, but they're all part of that spectrum and that's happening very rapidly. So if you're a brand, for example, you have to start thinking, how am I showing up in LLM-based searches? And one way you can affect that, by the way, which this HBR article that I was reading this weekend and I posted on LinkedIn was saying a really good idea, which is like, go.

Just go to Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT, and XAI, and whatever, and just type in your brand. And just see how it comes up. And ask it questions about your brand, and see what it says. And make sure it's at a minimum when you're actually directly referencing your brand. Is it describing you correctly, et cetera, whatever? That's a good thing to know and start making adjustments on. But then secondly, the other practical advice that we're really getting at here is understanding

how consumer behavior is changing more broadly around agents. And when you really have an actual agent that can not just research for you and do search for you, but can actually like shop for you and can actually like re-merchandise the web for you in a customized way, like people should be thinking about how that's gonna start happening. And what does that mean for your brand marketing? What does that mean for your brand engagement with your customers?

we have to start thinking about a world of agents. And one of the things that people need to understand is, their websites agent-friendly? Not just for the LLM search thing, but also for the examples I just mentioned around Instacart and Jellycat type shopping, where it's like, wait a minute, if there's a custom agent on their side, how do I make it easier for them? Is there an API I can give them? Is there some other door to my website I want to give them to make it easier?

to do custom stuff for their client on the other side.

Andy Sack (11:37)
Two things I want to highlight as we close this out is that 2026 is the year of the agent. Agents fundamentally change the last 20 to 30 years of consumer behavior on the internet from consumers browsing to agents doing all that browsing, selection, and filtering, ultimately

purchasing. And that shift, which is why I started this episode saying, is the internet dead? Well, the internet as we knew it may be dying, and it's dying quickly, because the rise of the agents in 2026 is happening incredibly fast. So I want to highlight that for the audience. And I think I'd also say that as consumer behavior changes, business models

also need to change and you're we're going to see that played out really in the next six months. That's my concluding comment. Adam, any concluding comments before we wrap?

Adam Brotman (12:35)
It'll be interesting to see how this plays into mobile apps, not just the web, and what does that mean for my Starbucks app ordering experience, and the opportunity is there. So this is, to your point, when you start going down the rabbit hole of if consumers start using real personal agents a lot, which I think we're going to start to see more and more and more.

And same with enterprises, like what are the ripple effects of it? I think that's a conversation we should just keep having and keep highlighting examples of.

Andy Sack (13:07)
Yep, I agree.

With that, thank you all for listening to AI First with Adam and Andy. For more resources on how to become AI First, you can visit our website, forum3.com, download case studies, research briefings, executive summaries, and join our email list. We also invite you to connect with our AI First community, a curated hub and network for leaders turning AI hype into action. We truly believe you can't over-invest in your AI learning. Onward.