---
id: "quote-machine-readable-trust-targeting"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ A Shift in How Value is Created"]
tags: ["marketing", "trust"]
related: ["concept-machine-readable-trust", "claim-performance-marketing-disruption"]
speakers: ["Mark J. Greeven", "Fabrice Beaulieu", "Wei Wei"]
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-ext-15-china-ai-agents-commerce"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/research-what-chinas-ai-agents-reveal-about-the-future-of-commerce"
sourceTitle: "Research: What China’s AI Agents Reveal About the Future of Commerce"
---
# Machine-Readable Trust Is the New Targeting

> "In agentic commerce, machine-readable trust becomes the new targeting. The value shift is not only about marketing; it is also about economics."
> — [[entity-mark-j-greeven]], [[entity-fabrice-beaulieu]] and [[entity-wei-wei]]

## Why it matters
Compresses two moves at once: the marketing shift ([[claim-performance-marketing-disruption]]) and the economic shift ([[concept-costs-of-eligibility]]). "Targeting" — the core primitive of paid acquisition — is replaced by [[concept-machine-readable-trust]].