Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory says power flows to the player that owns the customer relationship and commoditizes everyone else.
Search did it to publishers
The App Store did it to software.
Now Model Context Protocol (MCP) could do it to consumer brands.
Personal AI agents are becoming the new aggregators.
With MCP, they can compare prices, place orders, and handle returns through a single standard.
That gorgeous storefront you invested millions in? It’s becoming a data endpoint in someone else’s experience.
Just 6 months ago I called out the risk in: B2C, B2AI, or both?
But things are accelerating.
Anthropic open‑sourced MCP in November 2024, and last month OpenAI and Google pledged support. Microsoft has sprinkled MCP connectors across Azure & Copilot.
The future is coming fast. What should you do?
Let’s revisit the options I offered 6 months ago:
Commodity supplier: If yours is a commodity product or service, at a good price, why would your customer bother calling? Or browsing? Or even going to your outlet? They’ll get AI to do it. Your opportunity is to be the provider with the inventory, price, delivery option and value add that gets chosen by the AI. Get started with building and trialling an MCP endpoint. How will you encourage usage? Will you offer discounts for orders placed via MCP… after all, you didn’t have to deliver the UI or the shop front!
Known brand: If you want to maintain a relationship with the customer, and avoid a race to the bottom in pricing, bundling and delivery perks you need a brand, product, or service that’s so strong, your customers specifically ask their AI assistant for it: “Get me an ABC brand meal to my door”, “Order my favorite XYZ”. Back to good old fashioned brand building!
Experiential brand: to retain the B2C crown, you’ll need to up your game, or already be at the top. Your brand, product, and/or service experience needs to be so good that people choose to go direct. They want the experience that dealing directly with you gives them. They appreciate the deep human connection. They value your advice and experience over whatever their super-intelligent AI assistant can offer them. But that is a very, very high bar!
MCP is becoming the USB-C for AI interactions.
The next major aggregator is the AI agent in your pocket.
Will your customer relationships survive? Should you fight to retain them?
Or let your customers’ own AI replace your storefront and customer acquisition team? With corresponding reductions in cost to acquire customers?
Kerry
PS: If you want a more regular dose of insights, follow or connect with me on LinkedIn for regular posts on conversational AI, mindset, and egg juggling, among other things!
PPS: You are building with GenAI right now, aren’t you? If not, what’s stopping you? Check out our blog on Gen-AI blockers, or sign up for a complimentary Strategy Workshop to help you get started.
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