"Alexa, buy me something for lunch.” This sounds like a casual request, but it’s actually a brand battleground. In the era of “agentic AI,” or AI systems acting as autonomous shopping agents, your brand’s next big competitor might be a series of algorithms deciding which product ends up on your lunch plate.
Canadian brands now face a provocative question: What happens when your most important customer isn’t human at all?
This isn’t science fiction. Artificial intelligence has already seeped into daily Canadian life—from the way we discover music and movies to how we shop for toothpaste. Consumers are becoming Human+, armed with AI assistants that handle mundane tasks. The brands that win in the next decade will be those that embrace these AI helpers rather than fear them. In other words, Canadian marketers must learn to advertise to algorithms, not just to people.
If that sounds radical, consider this: figuring out how to climb to the top of Google search results was one form of catering to an algorithm. The next form of AI-driven Google search is even more direct—it’s about making your brand the AI agent’s preferred, swirling in the digital ether of your customer’s life.
The rise of the autonomous consumer
We are entering the era of an AI-empowered shopper. This agentic AI-armed consumer outsources bits of their buying journey to algorithms the way a busy CEO delegates to an assistant. Mundane errands like refilling the pantry or snagging the cheapest printer ink are being offloaded to AI agents that automatically manage purchases based on preset preferences and real-time deals. The consumer’s shopping journey—once an emotional, human-driven saga—is increasingly a high-speed data exchange between algorithms.
For brands, this means the classic touchpoints are in flux. The new, billion-dollar celebrity-starring TV commercial or the eye-catching in-store display might never even be “seen” by an AI tasked with restocking someone’s kitchen. As Kantar’s “Human-Plus” whitepaper puts it, “the biggest change ahead is smarter, AI-enabled consumers, for whom today’s shopping journey will be an anachronism.” In other words, the marketing funnel as we know it is getting a digital co-pilot.
Crucially, this shift doesn’t eliminate humans from the process—it reassigns our role. Humans will still call the shots for high-stakes, emotional purchases. Nobody is letting a robot choose an engagement ring or a flattering party outfit (not yet at least). In categories rich with emotion—fashion, home décor, personal care—human impulse and taste remain king, with AI offering helpful suggestions and narrowing choices. But in low-stakes categories—think toilet paper, detergent, printer paper—many Canadians will happily say, “You got this, Siri.” It’s a convenient trade-off: we get time and mental energy back in return for trusting algorithms to get the job done efficiently.
This leads to a provocative new mandate for brands: start marketing to the machines that help your consumers, even as you continue to woo the consumers themselves. Marketing fundamentals like Meaningful Difference (i.e., having a unique value and positive resonance) will remain the North Star. But the audience now includes algorithmic gatekeepers alongside flesh-and-blood shoppers. If your brand isn’t seen as Meaningfully Different (or simply reliably good) by the AI doing someone’s shopping, you might be filtered out before a human even enters the equation.
So, what’s ahead for retail and CPG in this agentic AI shopping universe?
Here are five (already underway) ways that agentic commerce will likely reshape retail and consumer packaged goods, and how AI will rewrite the rules of brand growth:
1. AI agents take over repetitive shopping tasks
The weekly slog for basics will fade. Canadians will increasingly delegate routine buys (e.g., laundry detergent, dog food) to AI assistants that automatically reorder based on usage patterns and pre-set preferences. The Keurig notices you’re low on pods and quietly orders more Tim Hortons coffee before you even think about it. Brand implication: if you’re a habitual purchase, your battleground is now the algorithm’s shopping list. You must secure a spot on that list through data integration (e.g., smart device partnerships) and dependable value.
2. Humans still lead in emotion-led categories
Buying a luxury watch or choosing a new sofa set is not going fully automated anytime soon. Human desire and subjective taste will continue to drive “treat” and style purchases. But even here, AI will be the co-pilot: imagine an AI stylist curating options for a shopper to pick from. For brands in these spaces, emotional storytelling and brand image will be as vital as ever. Your marketing must make people feel something genuine (joy, pride, confidence) because tapping human emotion is where AI has no advantage over you.
3. Retailers will build for bots, not just browsers
Winning retailers in Canada are already shifting their tech investments. The future is machine-readable product data, robust APIs, and checkout flows that an AI agent can trigger without a human clicking. For instance, Loblaw or Walmart Canada might expose inventory data so an AI can check stock and place an order all on its own. As a brand, you’ll favour retailers who are bot-friendly because that’s where the frictionless transactions will happen. If a retailer’s system bogs down AI assistants, those assistants will steer shoppers elsewhere in a nanosecond.
4. AI-summarized reviews trump word-of-mouth
Already, 90% of consumers check reviews before a purchase. Now AIs are starting to cut through the clutter. Instead of slogging through 87 mixed reviews about a new snowboard, your AI buddy just says, “I read everything, so you don’t have to, and 95% of verified Canadian buyers of this snowboard were thrilled.” What does this mean for brands? You can’t game the system with one-off influencers or a blitz of ads. If your product quality is subpar, AI will sniff it out in the reviews and bury you. Conversely, if you delight customers, that collective joy will get distilled and amplified by AI. In short, consistent product performance is more important than ever; it directly feeds the algorithmic recommendation engine.
5. Brand loyalty will be algorithmically earned
The era of “People love our jingle, so they stick with us” is waning. AI agents are brutally pragmatic; they neither swoon nor hold grudges. In an AI-managed world, loyalty will come down to delivering consistent value. If Brand A’s razors are always sharp, in stock, and well priced, the AI will keep buying them for John Doe. The day Brand A slips—stockout, delay, a sudden price hike—the AI will happily experiment with Brand B. For marketers, this is unnerving yet freeing: unnerving because any complacency will be punished, freeing because a great product at a great price will find its way to the top even without Super Bowl ads. It’s meritocracy (finally!) but on steroids.
These predictions might sound like a futurist fever dream, but elements of each are already visible in Canada’s retail landscape. The ripple effects for brand growth are profound—innovate or become irrelevant.
View our full 2025 Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Canadian Brands report here
