• Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic. In an April 12, 2024 interview with The New York Times“ The Ezra Klein Show Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Dario Amodei,” he spoke of leveraging Generative AI to make reservations, book an Uber, go to websites, and talk to other people.
• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. In a blog post announcing Gemini 2.0, he stated " Over the last year, we have been investing in developing more agentic models, meaning they can understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead, and take action on your behalf, with your supervision."
• Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. In his keynote at Microsoft Ignite 2024, he discussed the evolution of AI, emphasizing the transition from copilots to more advanced agents and stated " We’ re moving beyond copilots to agents that remember, reason, and act."
The race is on to be the first in delivering bots with agency. And it’ s going to change the world around us.
Gartner, arguably the leading analyst company in the world, has written many research notes and even a book on the topic. It has pointed out that bots with agency are about to become part of our everyday lives and it will have a profound effect on how consumers engage with marketing, sales, and support.
It’ s critical, then, to be ready for the change this creates. Soon, consumer smartphones, laptops, or browsers could be quietly negotiating on their behalf with no supervision needed.
IF YOUR CUSTOMER IS A BOT, EVERYTHING CHANGES
ChatGPT now serves over 800 million weekly active users according to an article published in Digital Information World, citing a Forbes piece: a tenfold increase in just two years. It processes more than 1 billion queries every day.
As these tools become fully autonomous, the implications for businesses, particularly customer service teams, are profound.
Most contact centers today are built for human interaction. They’ re designed around peaks and troughs in-line with when consumers need help the most and are available to engage.
But autonomous bots don’ t abide by the same principles. They:
• Don’ t sleep, get frustrated, or wait patiently and they operate on a 24 / 7 cadence.
• Can submit tickets to 10 companies at once, follow up on all of them every hour, and escalate issues the moment a delay is detected.
• Can bypass websites entirely, pulling structured data from reviews, forums, and APIs to find the best answers.
If your brand isn’ t visible where agents are looking, or if your offerings aren’ t structured in ways bots can easily interpret, you’ ll be invisible to the new gatekeepers.
Most importantly, bots with agency won’ t be persuaded by sales language or overlook vague responses. They’ ll demand fast, accurate, and frictionless resolutions.
Adding more agents won’ t be enough. Staff will need to be skilled differently and the systems they use will need to empower them to handle a complete shift in engagement model.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A BOT FUTURE
Businesses must ensure their systems, data, teams, and governance are equipped to operate in a 24 / 7 environment where machines act as both customers and intermediaries. Here’ s how to stay ahead:
BOTS
... BOTS WITH AGENCY...[ WILL ] DEMAND FAST, ACCURATE, AND FRICTIONLESS RESOLUTIONS.
• Start by understanding your exposure. Can your infrastructure absorb a surge in volume driven by non-human agents? Are your support channels built to handle always-on engagement? Stress-test your APIs, webhooks, and endpoints. Use simulated bot traffic to model sustained load and identify failure points.
• Optimize your data for machine consumption. AI doesn’ t browse like a human. It parses structure. Ensure your content and data are structured for machines, not just humans. Make your FAQs, documentation, and service workflows easy for bots to digest and secure against misuse.
• Uplevel security to improve API frontlines. Bots will be probing for access. That means putting guardrails in place. As bots gain access to customer data, pricing, inventory, and workflows, companies must have a clear view of what’ s exposed and how it’ s being used.
• Be clear about ownership and accountability. Who’ s responsible when a bot makes a mistake? Who owns the data it pulls and who answers for misuse? These questions won’ t wait for regulators to catch up. From the European Union’ s AI Act to state-level privacy laws, businesses will be held to higher standards of transparency, security, and control.
And finally, none of this matters if your people aren’ t ready.“ AI fluency,” namely understanding, communicating about and with, and using AI-driven applications, has become the deciding factor for business success.
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