Thought
Agents replace middlemen, not platforms
AI agents replace the people in the middle, but the platforms at the end keep the money.
Agents now do the job of almost every everyday go-between, from the travel agent and the recruiter to the receptionist and the tax adviser.
The agent remembers you and acts for you.
But the agent doesn't take the sale.
Discovery moved into the assistant, and the transaction stayed with whoever owns the supply.
OpenAI scaled back its in-chat checkout in March.
Hotels, marketplaces and banks keep the money, and the middleman's salary disappears.