"As AI assistants evolve into agents capable of real transactions, the ad industry faces a new challenge. The missing piece is not another model but the infrastructure that connects merchants, enables attribution, and ensures monetisation. Aaron Simpson, founder of Kindred, explains why this invisible layer is about to become the most strategic asset in advertising and commerce. Agentic AI has quickly moved from theory to boardroom conversation."
"At present, the answer is nobody at scale. Platforms are beginning to embed transactions into AI-native experiences. Consumers are already testing what it feels like to buy through a conversational prompt. Yet the supporting infrastructure is missing. Agents need real-time access to pricing, inventory, merchant catalogues, and attribution systems. They also need to understand which monetisation paths to prioritise. Without this layer, agentic AI will remain a promising demo rather than a functioning market."
Agentic AI can take action on behalf of users, making decisions, executing transactions, and learning from feedback, which changes commercial stakes. The critical missing component is an invisible transactional infrastructure that connects merchants, provides real-time pricing, inventory, and catalog access, enables robust attribution, and supports monetisation decisions. Platforms are beginning to embed transactions into AI-native experiences and consumers are already testing conversational purchasing. Merchant connectivity remains fragmented, most brands lack feeds that translate into agent decisioning logic, and attribution systems still assume media-first ecosystems rather than autonomous decision engines. Companies that build the invisible plumbing will capture strategic commercial value.
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