---
id: "quote-agents-not-human"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶1"]
tags: ["e-commerce-trends"]
related: ["concept-ai-shopping-agents"]
speaker: "Authors"
speakers: ["Jafar Sabbah", "Oguz A. Acar"]
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-06-ai-shopping-agents"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/research-traditional-marketing-doesnt-work-on-ai-shopping-agents"
sourceTitle: "Research: Traditional Marketing Doesn’t Work on AI Shopping Agents"
---
# Shoppers are increasingly non-human

> "A growing share of shoppers are not human. They are AI agents researching, comparing, and increasingly purchasing on behalf of consumers."
> — [[entity-jafar-sabbah|Jafar Sabbah]] & [[entity-oguz-a-acar|Oguz A. Acar]] (¶1)

**Why it matters:** The framing statement of the entire source — it establishes the premise that a growing, material share of e-commerce traffic is composed of [[concept-ai-shopping-agents|AI shopping agents]] rather than humans, which is what makes the collapse of [[concept-human-centric-persuasion|human-centric persuasion]] an urgent business problem.

**Related:** [[concept-ai-shopping-agents]]