---
id: "quote-trust-as-strategy"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["\\\"§ Trust as Strategy", "Not Compliance\\\""]
tags: ["strategy", "compliance"]
related: ["concept-trust-layer", "contrarian-trust-as-strategy"]
speaker: "Authors"
speakers: ["Ali Furman", "Ege Gürdeniz", "Rima Safari", "Remzi Ural"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/how-brands-can-adapt-when-ai-agents-do-the-shopping"
source_title: "How Brands Can Adapt When AI Agents Do the Shopping"
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-ext-14-brands-adapt-ai-shopping"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/how-brands-can-adapt-when-ai-agents-do-the-shopping"
sourceTitle: "How Brands Can Adapt When AI Agents Do the Shopping"
---
# Trust as Strategy

> "The brands that lead won't treat trust as a compliance exercise. They'll treat it as a core part of their commerce strategy—building the technical standards, business practices, and consumer protections that make delegation safe."

— The authors ([[entity-ali-furman]], [[entity-ege-g-rdeniz]], [[entity-rima-safari]], [[entity-remzi-ural]])

**Context.** The article's closing thesis and the statement of the contrarian insight [[contrarian-trust-as-strategy]]: the [[concept-trust-layer]] is a revenue and product strategy, not a legal checkbox.