From your Identity to you Ego ID - AI wants it all

Why Now and what does this really mean?

We’re standing at the start of a fundamental shift in how commerce happens.

Visa’s new intelligent commerce platform, OpenAI’s integration of shopping into ChatGPT, and Amazon’s agent-driven Nova Act aren’t just new payment tools. 

They’re early signs of a future where your AI agent is the primary interface to the market, not you.

AI already knows your location, your preferences, your transaction history, your behaviour patterns. It knows when you’re likely to spend, what triggers a splurge, and what you’ll hesitate over.

At some point, it’ll know you better than you know yourself.

And that’s where things get really interesting.

When Does Your AI Know You Better Than You Do?

Humans are messy. We’re inconsistent, emotional, prone to impulse and regret. AI isn’t. It tracks patterns across thousands of micro-behaviours. It notices when you're more generous, more price-sensitive, or more loyal to a brand based on things you’d never consciously link together.

• It knows you’re more likely to treat yourself after stressful meetings.
• It predicts when you’re most open to trying new brands.
• It identifies the subtle cues that drive your buying decisions.

In short, it doesn’t just respond to what you say you want - it predicts what you’ll actually do.

When your AI agent knows your behavioural signature better than you can articulate it, who’s really making the decision?

And here’s the psychological kicker: Freud’s theory of the "id" describes our raw, instinctual desires - the impulses that drive us beneath conscious thought. 

In a strange twist, AI agents are beginning to understand and act on our ID - both in the sense of identity and instinct - more intimately than we do ourselves.

The future of commerce isn’t just about identity verification. It’s about who truly knows your ID’s- and who acts on them first.

So… Who’s the Customer Now?

Today, brands market to people. But in a world of autonomous AI agents, are we still the real target?

If your AI is the one:

• Filtering product options
• Making recommendations
• Managing purchase decisions

… then the primary "buyer" isn't you - it's your AI.

That raises huge questions:

• Should brands start optimising for algorithmic decisioning, not just human emotional resonance?
• What factors will AI agents prioritise when choosing products - price, quality, brand loyalty, past preferences?
• How do you build loyalty with a proxy customer that isn't driven by impulse or advertising?

For low-ticket, high-frequency purchases (groceries, subscriptions, minor retail), this shift will hit first and hardest.

Brands will need to think differently. Winning the shelf won't matter if the shelf is invisible and your AI never even lets you see the alternatives.

Where Emotion Still Reigns: Passion Purchases

There’s an important caveat here: emotion isn't dead. Far from it.
For major, brand-led purchases - cars, homes, high-end fashion, luxury travel - emotional connection will become even more important.

Nobody is letting their AI pick their next car without a human in the loop. Not yet, and maybe not ever. Cars are emotional. They represent identity, aspiration, lifestyle.

Emotion will be the counterweight to AI's logic.

If you want to break through the algorithmic filter, you’ll need brand love, storytelling, aspiration. You’ll need to create a reason for the human to override the agent’s efficient but soulless recommendation.

• AI might suggest the safest or most cost-effective vehicle.
• You’ll still choose the one that makes you feel something.

That's where traditional brand-building will matter more than ever.

The Data Question: Who Owns Your AI's Memory?

As AI agents become more autonomous, their "knowledge" about you becomes the most valuable asset.

• Who owns the purchase history?
• Who controls the inferred preferences and emotional triggers?
• What happens if you want to move "yourself" to a different agent?

If platforms like OpenAI, Amazon, Visa or others lock up this memory, they don't just own a transaction flow. They own your digital self.

Expect fierce battles over data portability, transparency, and user control as agent-driven commerce scales.

Trust will be the new loyalty. Not brand loyalty - platform loyalty.

Winners and Losers in an Agent-First Economy

Winners:

• Platforms that make agent interactions seamless, trustworthy, and frictionless.
• Brands that optimise for both human and AI appeal - logical value and emotional resonance.
• Payment networks that master tokenised identity verification and agent interoperability.

Losers:

• Brands relying on shelf-space marketing and visual branding alone.
• Companies that fail to build trust around data usage.
• Retailers who ignore the rise of invisible, agent-driven purchases.

Where This Heads Next: Autonomous Commerce

In five years, agent-first commerce won't be niche.

Imagine:

• Your AI negotiates hotel prices based on your loyalty history.
• It pre-orders groceries based on your schedule and habits.It upgrades 
• your travel automatically based on reward thresholds you haven't even noticed.

You won't browse. You won't search. You won't even "decide" most of the time.

You’ll live inside curated, agent-managed financial flows. The biggest threat to brands? Being invisible to the agent’s decision-making model.

The biggest opportunity? Becoming the default recommendation the AI never needs to question.

Summary: Welcome to Proxy Commerce

Your AI won't just help you make decisions. It will make decisions.
The question for brands isn't "how do we sell to people" anymore.

It's: how do we sell to their agents - and still move the human heart when it matters most?

Because emotion isn't going away. But it's about to get a lot more selective.
And the future? It belongs to the brands who can win both minds and machines.