Some quotes from the article:
Woolworths has announced a partnership with Google to incorporate agentic artificial intelligence into its 'Olive' chatbot, starting in Australia later this year.
Woolworths said Olive would not complete purchases automatically, and customers would still need to approve and pay for orders.
This distinction is important, but risks understating what's actually changing. By the time a shopper reaches the checkout, many of the substantive decisions about what to buy may already have been shaped by the system.
In practical terms, if Woolworths shoppers give their permission, the new Google Gemini version of Olive will increasingly assemble shopping baskets autonomously.
For example, a customer who uploads a photo of a handwritten recipe could receive a completed list of ingredients, reflecting product availability and discounts.
Alternatively, a customer who asks for a meal plan could receive a ready-made basket, based on past preferences, current promotions and local stock levels.
This fundamentally changes the role of the shopper.
Instead of actively selecting products through browsing and comparison, shoppers would increasingly review and approve selections made for them. Decision-making shifts away from the individual towards the system.
This delegation may appear minor when considered in isolation. Over time, however, repeated delegation shapes habits, preferences and spending patterns.
That is why this new change deserves careful scrutiny.
Agent-based shopping systems are designed to nudge behaviour in ways that differ markedly from traditional advertising.
When Olive highlights discounted products or promotional offers for a shopper, it doesn't rely on neutral criteria. Instead, its priorities reflect pricing strategies, promotional priorities and commercial relationships - not an objective assessment of the consumer's interests.
This is a particularly powerful form of influence. Traditional advertising is recognisable.
Shoppers know when they are being persuaded and can discount or ignore it.
Algorithmic nudging, by contrast, operates upstream. It shapes which options are surfaced, combined or omitted before the shopper encounters them.
Not necessarily more expensive items. Just that the highest bidder can have the LLM selector prioritise their products when helping customers. A subtle and hidden form of advertising.
This.
It will be a bidding war at the supplier level. Product A put in a better bid than Products B&C. So they get selected by the agent; this happens often enough...
First Product B is no longer stocked and is effectively unavailable for the shopper. Product C is still hanging on but is now considered second tier and sales fall. Eventually Product A is the only option, cue enshitification of Product A!!!
This directly feeds the big players at the expense of the little players. This is bad for everyone. Traditional marketing is bad enough....this turbo charges the race to single supplier dominance; they may offer different "brands" but it will all be the same supplier at the end.