Professor of Marketing & Goizueta Chair in Business Technology David Schweidel is featured in the March–April 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review as coauthor of “Preparing Your Brand for Agentic AI.”
In the article, Schweidel and coauthor Oguz A. Acar examine how large language models and AI agents are beginning to reshape the relationship between brands and consumers. They argue that companies are entering a new era in which AI does not simply support marketing and commerce—it increasingly mediates how products are discovered, evaluated, and purchased. Schweidel and Acar argue that many organizations are not yet prepared for a marketplace in which AI systems act as powerful intermediaries.
Schweidel’s research has long focused on data-driven marketing, customer analytics, social media intelligence, and the ways firms can use statistical and computational tools to better understand consumer behavior. At Emory, his work sits at the intersection of marketing, technology, and decision-making, making him especially well positioned to analyze how AI is changing the customer journey and the future of brand strategy
Excerpt from “Preparing Your Brand for Agentic AI”
As AI agents become more prevalent, the traditional relationship between brands and consumers is giving way to a new set of interaction modes—some mediated by AI and others driven entirely by it. In addition to direct, human-to-human engagement, three emerging types of interaction are beginning to coexist in the marketplace.
In the first type of relationship, brand agents engage directly with human customers. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that simply answer questions, these agents help consumers explore products, make decisions, and access services in new ways. Capital One’s Auto Navigator Chat Concierge is an excellent example. It can check dealership inventory, schedule test drives, estimate trade-in values, and answer financing questions. Customers can complete most of the buying journey through an AI agent before ever stepping into a dealership.
In the second type, consumer agents act on behalf of individuals across multiple brands. Claude’s “computer use” capability, for example, allows an agent to autonomously navigate screens, fill out forms, and complete purchases. It acts almost as the consumer’s personal digital representative.
In the third type, full AI intermediation, AI agents interact autonomously on both sides of the transaction without direct human involvement. In this mode human intentions, emotions, and preferences are prefiltered using algorithms. We’re seeing the early stages of this already: ChatGPT’s agent searches OpenTable, selects restaurants, autofills reservation details, and completes bookings. Hostie’s AI concierge manages inquiries, assesses availability, and sends reservation confirmations on behalf of restaurants. Human oversight may be the norm today, but these systems are early examples of fully autonomous processes, from beginning product research to completing the transaction.
Brands must evaluate which aspects of traditional customer relationships to preserve and which ones to evolve. To guide this shift, brand managers should focus on three critical stages of agentic adoption. First, determine if you need to deploy an AI agent at all. Second, if you do, you must persuade consumers to use your brand’s agent instead of their own. And third, for consumers who prefer their own AI agents, you must ensure that these autonomous intermediaries choose your brand.
Read more here.
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