[Column] Michel van Velde: AI agents are the new target audience

"Show me a sustainable shampoo."
"Here are three brands that score well on ingredients and customer satisfaction."

This dialogue doesn't take place in a store or a browser, but between a consumer and their personal AI agent. And your brand? It's nowhere to be found.

More than 45 percent of online purchase decisions now influenced by AI

According to recent figures, more than 45 percent of online purchase decisions are already influenced by AI, through personalized recommendations, search algorithms, and voice assistants. And that share is growing rapidly with the rise of AI agents. In this new landscape, the role of branding changes fundamentally: it's no longer just about being visible to people, but also to machines.

Branding is shifting from human to machine, says Michel van Velde, CEO and Brand & AI Director at strategy agency Ablestar. Some mobile phones, like certain Samsung models, are already equipped with AI assistants. Amazon has also introduced AI agents to help you purchase products. It's only a matter of time before everyone has their own personal AI assistant. And these AI agents select brands based on:

• Structured data
• Recognizable positioning
• Consistent brand communication
• Reliable online sources

Brands with a clear identity, a consistent tone of voice, and machine-readable brand assets, content, and product information have a measurable advantage. Algorithms make choices based on trust, context, and semantics.

Brands that win are not only appealing to humans but also machine-readable

"The brands that will win are not only appealing to humans but also machine-readable. You're no longer just building brand preference, but algorithmic trust. We already see that simply running a well-designed webshop is no longer enough. For e-commerce specialists, this means a necessary shift. What's needed is a content strategy focused on AI discoverability, semantically rich brand data connected to product information, and a robust data architecture where content is structured, up-to-date, and accessible."

"Many brands we speak to don't have this properly set up and don't know where to start. Think in entities, not just pages. Publish brand stories, customer data, product claims, and visual brand assets in ways that not only inspire but can also be interpreted by AI agents. They can then present your brand and products in a way that the consumer finds most appealing. For one, this might be a product sheet; for another, an AI-generated video featuring a branded avatar presenting the product."

The new branding reality: focus on humans and machines

The message is clear: brands, including B2B, that want to remain relevant must build strategies that work for both humans and machines. Branding will no longer be a luxury or a signboard, but the core on which AI decides who gets recommended — and who disappears into oblivion. Your brand won't be chosen because it's beautiful but because it's findable, understandable, and trustworthy — also for AI.

Michel van Velde is CEO and Brand & AI Director at Ablestar. He advises international brands at the intersection of brand strategy, digital innovation, and artificial intelligence

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