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This article is the second in a two-part series examining the evolution of marketplaces. In the first, we journeyed through the marketplace innovations that lowered friction in the purchasing process. In this piece, we examine the rise of agentic commerce in the age of AI, the existential threat it poses to marketplaces, and the role that AI agents could play in helping them compete by optimizing prices, inventory, and delivery—the fundamental drivers of consumer choice.
Recent Stories
Jan 18, 2026
Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’
His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was
Jan 18, 2026DigitalOcean And AMD Deliver Doubled Inference Performance For Character.ai
As enterprises seek alternatives to concentrated GPU markets, demonstrations of production-grade performance with diverse hardware reduce procurement risk.
Jan 18, 2026Why CPUs are the new GPUs: T. Rowe Price on positioning for the next phase of the AI trade
Rahul Ghosh of T. Rowe Price also weighs in on this year’s energy trade, calling it a “wildcard” with countervailing forces clouding the outlook.