In the near future, the primary way you interact with your customers will be through their personal agents. This has massive implications for business and design as we know it.
The running-shoes example makes the shift tangible: a retailer has to return reliable stock and delivery information, then the customer’s agent can compare it elsewhere. I’m less sure about brand suggestions in a generated interface—if they influence what the agent shows, it may be hard to tell useful presentation from a paid nudge.
That will really be the key to whether this becomes a system that puts power back in the hands of users, or the complete opposite. People will need agents that can actually trust to protect them. I could see that being an expensive utility that many people pay for (like we do now for internet access), but that could lead to a dichotomy where people have to pay to guarantee their autonomy and freedom from manipulation.
The running-shoes example makes the shift tangible: a retailer has to return reliable stock and delivery information, then the customer’s agent can compare it elsewhere. I’m less sure about brand suggestions in a generated interface—if they influence what the agent shows, it may be hard to tell useful presentation from a paid nudge.
That will really be the key to whether this becomes a system that puts power back in the hands of users, or the complete opposite. People will need agents that can actually trust to protect them. I could see that being an expensive utility that many people pay for (like we do now for internet access), but that could lead to a dichotomy where people have to pay to guarantee their autonomy and freedom from manipulation.