"AI agents aren't human customers, and that breaks everything we know about how markets behave. They don't have purchasing habits, don't experience friction and don't develop brand loyalty. After spending years as a quant at the global hedge fund Citadel, I'm cursed to always think in finance terms, but it's helped me spot the patterns hidden in plain sight. What I'm seeing is that AI agents are now our customers, but we are still measuring them like they are people."
"You can pay a ton of money to attract AI agents to use your product, but there's no moat being built around it. Those relationships are fragile because agents don't accumulate loyalty, and each interaction resets the market. With every transaction costing as much as the first one, the new model is far less cost-efficient than the prior CAC regime."
AI agents act as customers but lack persistence, purchasing habits, friction and brand loyalty. Applying human metrics like CAC, lifetime value and retention to agent-driven interactions produces misleading results because agents do not remain consistent customers. Network effects and loyalty-based moats unravel when each transaction can be reset by a transient agent. Large upfront acquisition spending fails to create durable advantages because every interaction can cost as much as the first. Companies must design new penetration metrics and new criteria for durable customer relationships in markets dominated by AI agents.
Read at Entrepreneur
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