Agentic AI: 7 Strategic Growth Opportunities for Forward-Thinking Leaders

The question isn't whether AI will transform consumer businesses: it already is. The question is whether brands will drive that transformation and capture its extraordinary value. 

The Inspiration: AI-Powered Future of Business

At the Skift Global Forum, Bret Taylor delivered a vision for the future of business that every leader should embrace as their competitive blueprint. Drawing parallels to previous platform shifts, he articulated that just as brands once needed websites, and later mobile apps, the next essential digital touchpoint is an AI agent. AI agents are rapidly becoming the unified front door to brands, seamlessly engaging customers wherever they are: across channels that include SMS, WhatsApp, voice, on the web, and in emerging channels like CarPlay and smart speakers. 

Taylor emphasized that AI agents unlock the potential to transform small interactions into relationship-building moments. He described ‘break glass’ scenarios - those critical instances when customers need immediate, empathetic solutions that transcend standard policies. AI agents trained to recognize and elevate these moments will define the next generation of customer loyalty and competitive differentiation.

The speed, scope, and momentum of Agentic AI is an opportunity to reimagine how consumer brands create value. Here are seven strategic growth opportunities that business leaders can use  to dominate in the AI-powered future of business.

7 Strategic Growth Opportunities for businesses in the Agentic AI Era 

1. Master AI-Native Brand Differentiation

Objective AI agents create an opening  for authentic value creation.

The objectivity of AI agents isn't a threat - it's the market's demand for genuine differentiation beyond marketing spend and legacy advantages. When AI agents recommend based purely on customer value, brands that deliver superior experiences, pricing, or singular offerings will win consistently. This creates a powerful incentive to focus on what truly matters: exceptional product quality, innovative services, and authentic customer value.

Recommendation: Develop compelling value propositions that AI agents will naturally recommend. Invest in memorable  experiences, superior service delivery, and customer benefits that stand out in objective comparisons. This market-driven transparency will reward brands that prioritize substance over positioning.

2. Transform shared foundational model infrastructure into a collaborative advantage

Every interaction with AI agents feeds foundation models that serve your competitors equally

The shared learning from foundation models can be a catalyst  for industry-wide elevation of customer service standards while generating rich insights about customer preferences and market dynamics. Smart consumer brands can leverage this collective intelligence to identify emerging trends, understand customer pain points, and innovate solutions faster than ever before.

Recommendation: Establish robust data capabilities to extract maximum value from AI interactions. Build feedback loops that translate customer conversations into product improvements, service enhancements, and new revenue opportunities. View shared model improvements as raising the entire industry's baseline while your differentiation comes from unique applications and experiences.

3. Build Strategic Independence Through Diversified AI Partnerships

Reduce platform risk while maximizing innovation opportunities

Rather than fearing foundation model dependency, businesses can build resilience through diversified AI partnerships, hybrid approaches, and selective vertical integration. This is the moment to negotiate favorable partnerships with AI companies, explore emerging alternatives, and build proprietary capabilities in areas most critical to competitive advantage.

Recommendation:  Develop a multi-vendor AI strategy that balances innovation speed with strategic independence. Invest selectively in proprietary AI capabilities for your most differentiated services. In contrast, use multiple foundation models for commodity functions. Create AI partnerships that provide technological access AND strategic protection.

4. Engineer Deep Integration to avoid AI Agents becoming conversational dead ends

Connected AI agents create sustainable differentiation and become critical infrastructure

The companies that integrate AI agents deeply into their core systems of record like reservation platforms, customer data, inventory management, and revenue optimization - will create sustainable competitive advantages that become increasingly difficult to replicate. This integration will allow brands to transform their entire customer experience while building ‘connected moats’ that protect market position.

Recommendation: Design AI agents as the primary interface to the tech ecosystem rather than as standalone tools. Prioritize system integration projects that enable your AI agents to access real-time inventory, customer history, and operational data. This deep integration creates compound value that strengthens over time and becomes virtually impossible for competitors to replicate quickly.

5. Lead the Future of Work Transformation

Workforce evolution creates opportunities to  enhance service delivery, reduce repetitive work and optimize cost

The evolution of customer service roles presents an extraordinary opportunity to redesign service delivery models, enhance customer experiences, and create new value propositions. Rather than simple replacement, smart consumer companies can redeploy human talent to high-value activities such as complex problem solving, relationship building, experience curation, and in-person services that drive premium pricing and loyalty.

Recommendation: Develop workforce transformation programs that combine AI automation with human upskilling. Create new roles focused on AI oversight, personalized experience design, and high-touch service delivery. Use efficiency gains from AI to invest in your teams to command premium pricing and drive customer loyalty.

6. Lead the charge on Next-Generation Business Models

Outcome-based pricing has the potential to revolutionize business and unit economics 

The emergence of outcome-based pricing models can help businesses mitigate risk, improve return on investment, and align technology costs directly with business results. This shift allows companies to experiment with AI tech without large upfront investments while creating pressure for vendors to deliver measurable value. It's a chance to fundamentally improve technology economics while accelerating innovation.

Recommendation: Proactively engage with AI-native tech providers offering outcome-based pricing models. Use the AI platform shift to renegotiate existing vendor contracts and evaluate ROI more precisely. Consider how your own services might incorporate outcome-based elements to strengthen customer relationships and reduce customer acquisition friction.

7. Capture the Platform Shift and Ride the Adoption Wave

AI agents represent the biggest reshuffle in consumer commerce history.

History demonstrates that platform shifts are extraordinary moments in time for companies that move decisively. The current AI adoption curve presents the chance to capture disproportionate market share by meeting customers in their preferred interaction models before competitors adapt. Early movers in conversational commerce and ‘agentic commerce’ will establish positions that become increasingly difficult to dislodge.

Recommendation: Accelerate development of compelling AI agent experiences that capture customer relationships in this dynamic platform shift. Invest in conversational commerce and ‘agentic commerce’ capabilities. Build direct AI agent relationships that bypass traditional intermediaries. The consumer brands that establish strong positions in AI-driven discovery and booking will define the next decade of consumer commerce.

Your Strategic Action Framework for Agentic AI-Powered Growth

The vision Bret Taylor stated represents genuine transformation potential, and the opportunity window is open now. Business leaders who embrace both the promise and the complexity of this transition will build the dominant consumer brands of the future. Success requires simultaneous execution across multiple dimensions:
✓ Offer AI agent experiences to customers as a compelling choice to engage with brands
✓ Establish conversational commerce capabilities that capture direct customer purchasing power
✓ Create authentic differentiation that AI agents naturally recommend to customers
✓ Invest in workforce capabilities to enhance human value creation and IRL experiences
✓ Build AI partnerships that provide innovation access while maintaining independence
✓ Leverage shared AI model infrastructure to accelerate product and service innovation
✓ Pioneer outcome-based business models that align costs with results and reduce risk

Brands that execute this multifaceted strategy will not just participate in the AI transformation - they will define it. How quickly can you build the capabilities that will dominate the AI-powered future of business?