Early Efforts to Win on the Agentic Web and Key Points of Failure

Description

This IDC Perspective explores the rise of the agentic web, which is emerging as a machine-to-machine internet layer where AI buyer agents autonomously discover, evaluate, and transact on behalf of humans. It details seven macrotrends reshaping buyer discovery, outlines five essential CMO capability initiatives, and provides a readiness diagnostic. The document argues that marketing must lead this transformation with IT, CISO, legal, and so forth to ensure they build structured, trusted, and agent-accessible presence that will dominate the next era of digital commerce."There are two ways to win on the agentic web. The most effective way is the brands' influence is strong enough that buyers mention your products in most of their requests to agents. That captures intent. Failing that, deals go to the brand with the first matching offer. That means your tech stack is your brand. Unfortunately, today's tech stacks are architected around a database marketing model that does not apply on the agentic web, which is all about intent-based marketing," Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Apps and Agents at IDC

Product Code: US54521926

Executive Snapshot

Key takeaways
Recommended actions

Situation Overview

The agentic web
The three principals of the agentic web
Seven trends reshaping the agentic web
- Trend 1: The collapse of search as the primary discovery channel
- Trend 2: The autonomous buyer agent
- Trend 3: Protocol standardization and machine commerce
- Trend 4: Major digital channels are building an agent layer
- Trend 5: Data identity, trust, and credentialing
- Trend 6: Millisecond markets
- Trend 7: Regulatory and governance complexity
Early examples
- AI-native discovery channels
- Brand concierges
- Machine-readable infrastructure
- Structured data and AEO
- Agent-accessible product knowledge
Points of failure along the agentic buyer's journey
- Query (brand intent capture)
- Discovery (brand presence and visibility)
- Evaluate (brand weakness exposed)
- Verify (brand authority and distribution)
- Engage (deepening the brand relationship)

Advice for the Technology Buyer

Agentic web optimization
Real-time offer infrastructure
Brand concierge programs
Seller agent capabilities
Agent trust and credentialing
Readiness gap diagnostics and remediation
- The visibility gap
- The data gap
- The accessibility gap
- The guidance gap
- The trust gap
- The latency gap
Conclusion