The most quietly significant session at London Tech Week may have been the one where John Bruce, CEO of Inrupt, sat alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee—the inventor of the web—to talk about agentic AI. If you work in advertising, personalisation, or digital marketing, the shift they outlined should be on your radar.
From Search to Delegation
“We’re moving from a time where we just search for stuff,” Bruce said, “into a time where we rely on our buddy, the AI agent, to act for us, to make recommendations for us. And the theorist is a short step then from that to click the button that says ‘buy.’”
Advertising has long relied on influencing what people find. But in an agent-driven future, the user doesn’t necessarily search—or even decide. The agent does.
Rewriting the Funnel
“Right now,” said Berners-Lee, “AI helps you find the best [option]… and the commerce will then happen.” He imagined a scenario where instead of being shown ads, users tell their agents what they want—and the agents make the purchase, from recommendation through transaction.
This has massive implications. If the agent is the interface, then the interface isn’t the brand. It’s not the ad. It’s not even the platform. It’s a layer in between.
Who’s the Agent Really Working For?
Bruce put the core challenge plainly: “That’s the point in time at which recommendation engines have become so good that you don't want to look around—you just go with whatever it suggests. And then the next step is you just buy it. And that's a really scary thought. All notion of choice goes away.”
Which makes trust, consent, and control central. Who owns the data? Who controls what the agent sees? And whose interests is it optimising for?
What Marketers Should Watch
The implications for marketing are enormous:
- Recommendation will outpace reach.
- The interface is becoming invisible.
- Data control will be a differentiator.
- Brand trust may matter more than brand recall.
And the timing matters. “If we don't watch it,” Bruce warned, “we'll wake up in a couple of years and find the world we live in is worse… where choices go away, not just for individuals but for organisations.”
If agents are going to reshape the internet, then marketers will have to reshape how they reach people through it.