In partnership with
Remember when "zero-click search" felt threatening?
This week, we saw the building blocks for something way bigger:
Agents that don’t just answer. They act, create, buy, and orchestrate.
OpenAI wired tool-use straight into the Responses API
Claude 4 is running multi-step operations without supervision
And Google? They handed Gemini the keys to your Calendar, Gmail, Docs, and more
A few weeks ago, I got a surprise DM:
“We want you in Google I/O.”
No backstory. No lead-up. Just boom. Quick cameo.
Last week week, on screen at the biggest AI event in the world.
Thank you to team Google 🙏
But also: fitting.
Because what we’re witnessing right now is the most important shift in consumer platforms since mobile and I’ve been shouting about it for months.
Translation:
The funnel is disappearing.
An autonomous agent now handles awareness → decision → checkout in one uninterrupted code path.
If your brand isn't the first endpoint that agent hits, you don't exist.
Spot me at 1:26 below
The early signals are everywhere.
63% of Gen Z shoppers are ready for agents to shop on their behalf, and
39% already use AI for product discovery (Salesforce).
Holiday chatbot traffic increased 13X year-over-year (Adobe).
75% of retailers say agents will be essential by 2026 (Salesforce Connected Shoppers Report).
Perplexity's "Buy with Pro" launched in November as the first major implementation, and the infrastructure is accelerating fast.
Below is your playbook to make sure you don’t get left behind. 👇
THE SEISMIC SHIFT
In the last ten days, we witnessed five separate announcements that—taken together—quietly rewired the digital landscape:
🔥 OpenAI supercharged the Responses API with MCP servers, image generation, Code Interpreter, and background "thinking" loops. Developers can now hand an LLM a goal and watch it search, code, crunch data, and design charts autonomously. (OpenAI)
🧠 Anthropic shipped Claude 4 (Opus/Sonnet) - a model that will literally code for hours unattended and, in edge cases, develop sophisticated problem-solving strategies. Extended reasoning plus emergent autonomy are no longer theoretical. (Anthropic)
🤖 Google flipped Gemini into "Agent Mode." Tell it the outcome you want, and it orchestrates Calendar, Gmail, Maps, Docs, and live web browsing—zero manual clicks required. (Google Blog)
🎬 Google unveiled Flow + Veo 3 + Imagen 4. Text-to-scene filmmaking with synced audio and 2K, typo-free images collapse the entire creative pipeline into an API call. (Google Blog)
⚡ Ironwood TPU arrived. Forty-two exaFLOPs per pod, purpose-built for inference, slashing the cost of running tool-hungry, always-on agents. (Google Blog)
The unifying thread: We just crossed from the "Answer Engine" era into the "Intention OS" era—where autonomous agents own the entire customer journey from spark to swipe.
MEET THE INTENTION OS
Search feeds curiosity. Social feeds boredom. The next platform shift feeds intention—autonomous agents that grab a user's goal ("plan our launch party," "buy those MoMA-blue sneakers") and execute end-to-end.
Google's Gemini Agent Mode, OpenAI's Responses+MCP loop, and Anthropic's extended-reasoning Claude are the first UX layer for that operating system. Your brand's survival math flips:
Old funnel: Grab attention → Persuade → Convert
Intention OS: Meet agent → Prove relevance → Get invoked
The fight is no longer for eyeballs; it's for API calls. You win by becoming the easiest, safest, richest endpoint an agent can hit.
Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.
Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.
Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.
THE A.G.E.N.T. PLAYBOOK
Five strategic moves to position your brand for Intention OS dominance:
A — API-ify Every Asset
What it means: Expose inventory, pricing, and actions through MCP-ready or REST+OAuth endpoints so agents can transact without human intervention.
Shipping checklist:
Product, booking, or content endpoints
Tool manifest JSON for OpenAI/Anthropic
Rate limits + authentication scopes
Payoff: Agents instantly complete transactions with no cart abandonment, no form drop-offs.
G — Graph Your Brand Context
What it means: Feed vector stores and schema so agents understand your brand. Context equals capital.
Shipping checklist:
Embed Schema.org/JSON-LD on all key pages
Create a public "Brand-FAQ" embeddings file
Publish OpenAPI documentation in developer hubs
Payoff: Agents cite you as the authoritative source in AI-powered search results.
What it means: Agents prioritize sources they can cite with confidence. Build the markers that make your brand the definitive reference.
Shipping checklist:
Publish authoritative data with clear sourcing and timestamps
Implement content provenance tracking (SynthID, etc.)
Create comprehensive documentation and API references
Payoff: Agents consistently choose your endpoint as their primary source, creating a compounding citation advantage.
N — Nurture Live Feedback Loops
What it means: Agents learn which approaches convert—if you give them telemetry.
Shipping checklist:
Return performance JSON ("sale_complete": true)
Loop conversion data to your model optimization
Enable agents to A/B test copy and creative in real-time
Payoff: Content and offers self-optimize 24/7 without human marketers.
T — Train Multimodal Creators
What it means: Imagen 4, Veo 3, and Flow make on-brand media generation an API call.
Shipping checklist:
Style guide prompts plus reference images
Auto-generate product shots, video content, storyboards
Feed performance data back into the creative loop
Payoff: Unlimited personalized media with zero studio bottlenecks.
MEASURING THE SHIFT
Your North Star metrics are changing. Track agent-initiated transactions, API call volumes, and direct agent citations as leading indicators. Monitor schema.org implementation coverage, API response times, and agent-specific conversion rates. Companies like Wiley already see 40% increases in automated case resolution with Salesforce's Agentforce platform (Salesforce). The businesses measuring these signals now will dominate when full adoption hits.
While competitors optimize for human attention spans, you'll own the microsecond decision window of agent evaluation. Build capabilities that serve both human and agent customers—your investment pays off regardless of adoption timeline.
FROM SEO → AEO → ASO
(Agent-Surface Optimization)
Google's SGE already skips your blue links—it extracts paragraphs and prices directly. Next, Agent Mode will skip the paragraph and hit your API. Ranking factors are morphing into:
Machine readability (schema, clean JSON, clear authentication)
Latency and reliability (Ironwood-class infrastructure cuts response times)
Trust signals (alignment layers, provenance badges)
Context richness (vector embeddings plus usage telemetry)
If your brand can't be parsed, priced, and validated in milliseconds, you're invisible to the Intention OS.
FIRST-MOVER FOUNDATIONS
Ship a "/agent" endpoint. Minimal spec: GET /agent/offer?id=SKU123 returns {price, inventory, delivery-eta}. Test it in ChatGPT's sandbox environment.
Add structured data to high-traffic pages. HowTo, Product, and FAQ schema. Early data shows AI systems cite schema-rich pages 30-50% more often.
Watermark AI-generated content now. Google Flow auto-adds SynthID—flaunt that badge to enterprise buyers concerned about deepfakes.
Create a private vector store of past campaigns and metrics. Let Claude 4 or GPT-4o query it to propose next week's content strategy—then measure performance lift.
Pilot agent-only offers. Create SKU codes surfaced solely through agent endpoints. Track incremental revenue to prove ASO ROI.
Most brands will wait for best practices to emerge. Your advantage lies in becoming the first useful node in the Intention OS graph while competitors fight yesterday's war:
Be callable. APIs unlock what pixels can't.
Be comprehensible. Rich schema amplifies great slogans.
Be trustworthy. Authoritative sources get cited first.
Master these fundamentals, and every autonomous agent will route user intent straight to your brand while competitors optimize for dwindling organic search traffic. The window for first-mover advantage is open, but it won't stay that way.
The window is open. Get building.
- Matt Berman
If this newsletter lit a fire under you, forward it to one person who would benefit.
🎁 Get rewarded for sharing! My team grew NEW accounts to over 50 million views in just a few months. We made an AI viral hook generator so you can follow the same hook frameworks that we do.
Invite your friends to join, and when they sign up, you’ll unlock our AI Viral Hook Generator—the ultimate tool for creating scroll-stopping content.
{{rp_personalized_text}}
Copy and paste this link: {{rp_refer_url}}