For more than a century, marketing has been built around one beautifully simple assumption: human beings make the choice.
We interrupt them. Seduce them. Entertain them. Follow them around the internet. Build fame, memory, emotional associations and distinctive assets so that, somewhere between desire and checkout, our brand wins.
That assumption is beginning to crack.
On 4 March 2026, something quietly extraordinary happened in Malaysia.
An AI agent booked a ride from KLIA to KL Sentral and completed an authenticated transaction in a Mastercard pilot with CIMB and RHB.
No science-fiction soundtrack. No humanoid robot walking through Pavilion KL.
A machine was simply given an intention and completed the purchase. It may turn out to be one of the most important moments Malaysian marketers barely noticed.
Because the next marketing revolution may not be about AI creating advertising. It may be about AI deciding which products and brands matter in the first place.
Adyen’s Malaysia Retail Report, released this week, says 74% of Malaysians already use AI while shopping to discover products, find inspiration and support purchasing decisions.
Among those users, 74% say AI helps them find inspiration faster, while 62% want AI to help them discover unique brands and shopping experiences.
But there is a fascinating fault line.
52% remain uncomfortable allowing AI to actually complete the purchase. We are standing in that brief, unstable period between assistance and delegation.
Today: “Help me choose.” Tomorrow: “Choose for me.”
And that changes branding profoundly.
Imagine telling an AI assistant: “Find me a good running shoe below RM500. I run three times a week, have wide feet, want something durable and need it delivered by Saturday.”
What happens to the billboard? The influencer? The clever TikTok? The beautiful brand film?
They may still matter enormously but perhaps only if they have already shaped the preferences the machine has been instructed to honour.
For decades, marketers fought for human attention. The next battle may be for machine preference. An AI agent is unlikely to feel nostalgic about your jingle.
It can interrogate availability, specifications, verified reviews, price, delivery reliability, returns, merchant reputation and whether the product actually fits its owner’s preferences.
Suddenly the boring parts of marketing become exciting. Your product feed is branding. Your reviews are branding. Your delivery record is branding. Your returns policy is branding.
Customer data, structured product information and reputation could become as consequential as the campaign.
Google is already preparing for this world. Its Shopping Graph contains more than 60 billion product listings, while Universal Commerce Protocol and Universal Cart are laying infrastructure for increasingly agentic shopping and checkout.
McKinsey estimates AI agents could mediate US$3 trillion to US$5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030. That isn’t another media channel. That is potentially a new gatekeeper. And Malaysia isn’t watching from the sidelines.
Nearly half — 47% — of Malaysian retailers surveyed by Adyen plan to invest in AI-driven or agentic commerce this year.
Yet 41% worry about maintaining customer relationships and brand control. They should. Because when an AI gives the consumer three recommendations, being fourth isn’t lower ranking.
It is invisibility.
But here comes the paradox. Agentic commerce may not kill brands. It may make genuinely powerful brands more valuable than ever.
Suppose I tell my agent:“Book me somewhere in Penang that feels like a Mandarin Oriental.”
Or:“Find me headphones, but I trust Sony.” Or simply:“Get me the Apple-like option — simple, beautifully designed and reliable.” Decades of branding have suddenly become instructions.
Brands that have built genuine meaning, trust and distinctive associations enter the AI age carrying something priceless: preference embedded inside the human before the machine begins searching.
Weak brands face a more terrifying future.
If your advantage is that you bought the keyword, dominated retargeting or simply shouted louder than everybody else, an intelligent intermediary may strip much of that advantage away.
Perhaps this is where the next great marketing discipline emerges.
Not SEO. Not merely AEO. Call it Machine Preference Optimisation.
Making certain that when AI evaluates a category, it understands exactly what your brand represents, why it is credible and when it deserves to be recommended.
Here lies the great irony.
As commerce becomes more automated, branding may have to become more human. Because machines can compare almost everything. What remains extraordinarily difficult to manufacture is meaning.
For a hundred years, marketers have asked: “How do we make people choose us?”
We may now need to ask something considerably more uncomfortable: How do we make sure their AI doesn’t eliminate us before they even get the chance?
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