Marketing to AI Agents: Get Ready, CPGers!

For most of us, today's AI is experienced as an application or enhancement to existing workflows. ChatGPT helps write emails. Midjourney creates images. Copilot writes code.

But the next wave is different: AI agents that act autonomously on behalf of consumers.

Imagine this: Your customer tells their AI assistant "restock my pantry" and the agent evaluates products, compares prices, reads reviews, checks ingredients, and makes purchase decisions - all without the human ever seeing a shelf or a product page.

What does this mean for CPG brands?

1. SHELF PRESENCE BECOMES DATA PRESENCE - Your product needs to be findable, describable, and recommendable by AI systems

2. REVIEWS BECOME ALGORITHM FUEL - AI agents will weigh review sentiment heavily in purchase decisions

3. INGREDIENT TRANSPARENCY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE - AI agents will parse ingredient lists and compare against consumer preferences

4. PRICE OPTIMIZATION GETS REAL-TIME - Dynamic pricing becomes the norm when AI agents comparison shop in milliseconds

5. BRAND LOYALTY GETS TESTED - An AI agent has no emotional attachment to your brand. It optimizes for the consumer's stated preferences.

The CPG brands that prepare for this shift now will have a massive advantage. The ones that don't will wonder why their market share is eroding despite "doing everything right."

Start by ensuring your product data is clean, your reviews are strong, and your value proposition is machine-readable. The AI agents are coming.