This insight summarises Your Entire Marketing Stack Is About to Be Rewritten by Agents, by Wei Manfredi, Senior Vice President of AI and Architecture at IHG Hotels & Resorts and an AIHA advisor, published on Substack on 10 October 2026. It is Part 1 of a two-part piece in The AI Disruptor Playbook series.
The customer hands over the job. Ordinary purchases (running shoes, a hotel for a short trip, a phone plan) often turn into an evening of tabs, reviews and fine print. A personal agent can take on that checking. The customer still has needs, a budget and preferences, but while the agent compares options they may be cooking dinner, not watching the brand film.
Marketing built for a moment that may not happen. Photographs, headlines, offers and button tests exist because a person is looking. An agent can read a hotel's sunset photo as evidence of a pool or a sea-facing balcony, but not whether the pool is heated in November or whether that balcony comes with the room the customer can afford. Emotion still shapes the request ("somewhere like the hotel we stayed in last summer"), but the persuasion around later checks may never happen.
Being seen does not settle the choice. Search rank, marketplaces and paid placement still help an agent find an offer. The top result still loses if the size is unavailable, delivery misses the deadline or the all-in price breaks the budget.
Awkward details move to the front. Fees, introductory rates, return costs and booking conditions that a website reveals gradually may be needed at the start of an agent's comparison. Conflicting or missing answers force the agent to ask, assume or leave the option out.
Losses you never see. When an agent rules out an offer, the customer never visits, so there is no basket to recover. Campaign reports can look healthy while purchases slip away for reasons the dashboard does not show.
Experience becomes evidence. With permission, agents may draw on purchase history and feedback. "Your copy says effortless. The customer remembers forty minutes on hold." Kept promises give the next choice something solid to rest on.
The whole stack needs attention. Creative, distribution, product information, checkout, measurement and retention are owned by different teams, but an agent evaluating on a customer's behalf will expose the gaps between them. Marketing can still make someone want you; it "also needs to give their agent a good reason to choose you."