Ben Thompson and Madhu Guru Debate How Consumers Want to Buy Through AI Agents
Ben Thompson says tech companies poorly craft marketing for agentic AI, while Madhu Guru argues consumers have differing relationships with tasks like shopping versus hiring a roofer. The exchange centers on which consumer activities AI agents should handle.
Original post · 1 min read
One of the all time insane clipping cycles. Few people are more agent-pilled than me. I’ve literally built my own. When Muse came out I said it was more important than solving math problems. And somehow, saying that tech companies don’t know how to craft marketing messages that resonate is being framed all over the Internet as being a Luddite.
Madhu Guru @realmadhuguruI respectfully disagree with @benthompson on this. He’s missing a key point - Consumers don’t have one relationship with “doing things”.
I’ve learned it the hard way from building consumer and smb products for years at Google and now Meta.
Browsing clothes can be entertainment (for some). But hiring a roofer is miserable (for most).
Even with shopping, sometimes you want to browse for an hour. Sometimes you want the right thing just delivered asap.
His argument sounds a lot like the early 2000s:
“Why would I buy clothes online? I need to try them on.”
“Why would I buy a $500 TV online? I…
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