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Chinese brands face new challenge as AI agents steer consumer choices
The shift from generative to agentic AI embeds commerce into users’ experiences, with AI agents balancing price, quality, reliability, sustainability, and personal preferences.
China’s marketing landscape is shifting as AI agents increasingly influence what consumers discover, consider, and buy, forcing companies to build trust with the systems that guide decisions, according to SCMP Economy. The outlet describes this as a move from generative AI to so-called agentic AI, where personal “concierges” can autonomously choose destinations and book transport, lodging, and restaurants based on a user’s tastes, values, and lifestyle.
SCMP Economy says these agentic tools use constantly updated understanding to perform “personality pairing,” and that commerce is embedded throughout the user experience rather than arriving through separate click-through steps. The result is that consumers increasingly seek curated recommendations instead of laborious browsing, reducing the role brands play in shaping the answer.
At the Cannes Lions festival in France, marketing executives and business leaders argued that brand identity is drifting from what companies intend to what AI agents generate and reinforce, often without marketers’ awareness, SCMP Economy reported. The outlet adds that regaining control will require strategies and tools for agentic AI that differ from those used for social media engagement and search engine optimization.