Google, OpenAI and Shopify insist that the next revolution in AI is agentic AI sales agents. Shopping is a lucrative area that AI can venture into. What I continue to think is that shopping is an extremely important activity for humans; it’s literally part of our DNA. Are the general public ready to abandon the shopping experience?
Agentic AI shopping is like a personal assistant that tells you what you want and perhaps why you need it, along with certain features and a price range. The AI will search and compare and even make the purchase.
No humans perform research in this scenario. So it’s not necessarily good for SEO unless you’re optimizing business sites for AI buyer agents.
Shopping is part of human biology
Scientists say shopping is literally part of our DNA. Our desire to hunt, gather, and display our ability to succeed is part of the evolutionary competition we participate in (whether we know it or not).
A Wikipedia page on the subject explain:
“Richard Dawkins points out in The Selfish Gene (1976) that humans are machines made of genes and that genes are the basis of everything people do.
…Therefore, everything people do is aimed at thriving in their environment above the competition, including how they consume as a form of survival in their environment by simply purchasing the basic physiological needs of food, water, and heat. People also consume to prosper above others, for example in conspicuous consumption where a luxury car represents money and high social status…”
This means that, whether we know it or not, our desire to shop is part of an evolving competition with each other. Part of it is about signaling our status and attractiveness for reproduction. So when we buy clothes or toilet paper, it’s part of our genetic programming to feel good.
Shopping and the brain chemical cocktail
And when it comes to feeling good, part of that is triggered by chemicals like dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin that kick in to reward you for finding a good deal.
Even making a deal on toilet paper can trigger reward signals in the brain.
Another Wikipedia page on the biology of our reward system explains:
“Reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces appetitive behavior, also known as approach behavior and consumption behavior. A rewarding stimulus has been described as “any stimulus, object, event, activity, or situation that has the potential to induce us to approach and consume it.”
A sale sign in a store can serve as a reward cue because it signals a lower price or added value, which may entice someone to approach and purchase it. The sign itself is just information, but when a person recognizes the discount or offer as beneficial, it can motivate them to take action. It is a deeply ingrained behavior that we carry within us.
We are like machines programmed in our genes to go shopping.
So this begs the question: why would anyone delegate this deeply rewarding activity to an AI agent? It’s like delegating the pleasure of chocolate to a robot.
I assume that most of you reading this know which supermarkets sell the best produce at the cheapest price, which have the most delicious bread, and which markets have the best spices. This is our programming; it’s organic. It makes no sense to delegate the rewards inherent in discovery or acquisition to an AI sales agent.
Serendipity and shopping
Chance occurs when things happen by chance, unexpectedly, and still bring a happy outcome or benefit. One of the joys of shopping is coming across something that is a good deal, looks good, or has some other value. Employing an AI agent will cause humans to miss the serendipitous joy of discovering something they weren’t looking for and that is not only desirable, but also something they didn’t know they needed.
For example, I bought a birthday present for my wife. I walked into a gift shop run by a charming new age hippie. We talked about music while browsing the gifts for sale. I found something, two things, that I hadn’t planned to buy. The two things had a semantic link to each other that I found poetic and therefore very pleasant as a gift. The store owner put both items in two boxes, then placed the boxes in a cute mesh gift bag with a ribbon.
This is serendipity in action. It was a pleasant moment that I enjoyed. I walked out of the store into the sun with a new cocktail of dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin flooding my brain, and it was a delicious moment. I bought a gift that I was sure my wife would like.
Agentic AI purchases are unnatural
My question is: why does Silicon Valley think it can automate the many things that make us human?
It’s as if Silicon Valley is trying to turn us into teenagers by doing what adults normally do.
Now they want to take the shopping away from us?
I think the only way for agentic AI to work is to build a sense of chance and discovery into the system. I’ve been a part of the tech scene for over 25 years, living in San Francisco, the Internet capital of the world, and even working for a time at a leading tech magazine.
So it’s not that I’m bad at technology. AI integrated into a business site makes a lot of sense. He can make recommendations and answer questions. It’s great. There is still a human being who clicks and discovers things for themselves in a way that satisfies their natural need to shop and consume. This is good for SEO because it means a store should be optimized for search.
AI agents running errands for humans makes less sense because it’s not natural, it goes against our biology.
Featured image by Shutterstock/Prostock-studio
