Executive Summary
Current State
AI is now embedded in many aspects of everyday life. Consumers already experience and interact with AI through search, recommendations, fraud detection, customer service and decision‑support tools that can save time and improve access to information. The rapid spread of generative AI – enabling natural language interaction – has accelerated this trend, bringing AI into direct, large‑scale engagement with consumers.
To date, however, AI adoption and its impact have been uneven and most consumer‑facing AI has operated as a tool: it supports decisions, while coordination, monitoring and action remain with the user.
Potential Future State
Agentic AI could drive a step change in how people use AI and its impact on their lives
Definitions vary but these include AI agents that can be instructed in natural language to achieve a goal autonomously, navigating some complexity in the environment, planning, coordinating, and taking actions – potentially across multiple services.
AI agents do not merely assist, they sense (perceive their environment), decide and act[1]. They go beyond generating responses to user queries and may:
- Assess goals, break them into subtasks, and plan end-to-end workflows
- Retrieve real-time data (that may include personal data) from other agents, databases and other services
- Execute actions autonomously, such as making payments on behalf of the user
- Store memory of past interactions to improve over time[2]
For businesses, this could unlock substantial productivity gains. For consumers, today’s chatbots may prove only a first step towards more capable personal agents – systems that anticipate needs and execute transactions on the user’s behalf.
If realised reliably at scale, this shift – from using tools to delegating outcomes – could materially change how people engage with markets and how value is created. The potential benefits for consumers are significant if the technology achieves reliability and is deployed responsibly. Agentic AI could reduce friction, improve personalisation and support better outcomes including potentially lower prices and tailored deals, including in complex markets.
By automating optimisation and follow‑through, AI agents could save people time, and reduce cognitive load, and potentially help consumers who face high engagement costs (including vulnerable consumers) participate in markets more effectively.
If all this drives stronger confidence and demand in consumer markets, there may be new opportunities for innovative businesses to enter and grow including new avenues for UK businesses to bring agentic apps and services to market.
At the same time, there are material risks. Greater autonomy for agents increases the consequences of errors, may heighten risks of manipulation and loss of consumer agency, and could lead to worse overall outcomes for consumers. People may be steered towards products and services that are more profitable but less suited to their needs, potentially paying higher prices. AI agents raise new questions about transparency, incentives and accountability and whether the current tools and frameworks that protect consumers are fit for purpose.
Without appropriate safeguards, agentic systems could undermine trust in AI and consumer markets rather than strengthen it, and this loss of trust and confidence in turn could inhibit positive innovation, investment and growth.
Direction of Travel
The technology and its deployment are at an early stage. Most implementations are relatively bounded and cautious, particularly in consumer‑facing contexts. Even so, interest and investment have risen sharply, driven by advances in models, falling deployment costs and early evidence of efficiency gains. Progress will depend on real‑world performance and on whether businesses and consumers develop sustained confidence in agentic systems.
Application of Consumer Law
UK consumer law applies whether decisions are made by people or by AI. The CMA’s foundation model principles – particularly transparency and accountability – remain directly relevant, and the CMA has published guidance to help businesses using agentic AI to comply with consumer law. Businesses exploring the technology should focus on robust training of systems, monitoring, and refinement, supported by appropriate human oversight.
Realising the full potential of agentic AI will also depend on wider enablers such as smart data schemes, secure digital identity and strong interoperability standards – enabling consumers to adopt with confidence, switch between systems and exercise choice. The UK has an opportunity to position itself at the forefront of trusted agentic innovation, fostering a dynamic, competitive ecosystem that drives household prosperity, innovation, and growth.
