Will AI Agents Make Consumers More Rational?

Josh Elman is not convinced AI agents will make consumers more rational. People still choose what feels most satisfactory, and an agent that curates the options too carefully can miss the mark. Picture sudden hunger: the agent knows the person wants to lose some weight and offers four meal options. Agents give better and faster access to what people already want, and they unlock things that were hard to reach. People keep their own preferences. When an agent misses the same preferences, people switch, import and export their stuff, and pick an agent that fits better.

Anish Acharya calls that risk paternalism. From 30 years in consumer product, even a hint of paternalism will kill a product. Productivity and goal achievement can be the opposite of what people love: spending money, feeling irrationally optimistic about the future, and seeing themselves in a better light than they appear to the world.