Article

Who Gets Paid When AI Does the Shopping?

Alex Immerman and Santiago Rodriguez, a16z · 2026-09-29.September 29, 2026

Summary

AI shopping assistants could reshape commerce not by replacing retailers’ warehouses, delivery networks or payment infrastructure, but by taking over the customer relationship and purchasing decision that sits above them. The article argues that whether marketplaces cooperate with or resist agents will depend on how much new demand agents create, how much existing profit comes from advertising and discovery, and how much bargaining power each side has. For knowledge workers, the useful point is that AI agents may redistribute economic value even when the underlying businesses continue doing the physical work.

Article source handoff

Alex Immerman and Santiago Rodriguez, a16z · 2026-09-29

This page is a short editorial source record. The summary and notes help you decide whether to continue, while the full article remains with the original author or publisher.

Publicationa16z
Author / creatorAlex Immerman and Santiago Rodriguez
Source dateSeptember 29, 2026
Read full article at source

Key Takeaways

  • Agents can disrupt a marketplace without rebuilding its operations. If an assistant becomes where customers decide what to buy, existing retailers and marketplaces may continue fulfilling orders while losing some control over discovery, advertising and the customer relationship.
  • Whether a platform welcomes an agent depends on two different questions: how much genuinely new demand the agent brings, and how much of the platform’s profit depends on owning discovery and customer attention. This helps explain why some companies are opening to agents while others are resisting them.
  • Economic incentives and bargaining power are not the same thing. A platform may want agent-generated demand but still negotiate aggressively if its inventory, fulfillment network or customer base is difficult for the agent to replace; conversely, an agent gains leverage when it has several alternative providers.
  • The eventual business model is still unsettled. Agents might charge consumers for convenience, providers for access to customers, or create enough additional purchases to compensate platforms for lower margins. The authors expect the underlying commerce networks to remain valuable, but question whether they will retain the same share of the profits once agents bring the customer.