Kenneth Glad
Imagine preparing for an event only to realise you are missing the right shirt. You could spend hours hunting for sizes online. Or a digital butler could handle the purchase before you even notice.
Major tech firms are pouring massive sums into a new wave of development, backed by recent financial reports showing historic budgets dedicated to computing power and infrastructure. They want to move far beyond basic chatbots that just follow commands and answer casual questions.
“The big tech companies are investing with the goal of putting a layer of artificial intelligence in everything we do,” futurist Lasse Jonasson told TV2.
Today, people treat tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot as simple digital assistants. You type a prompt, send the software out to scour the web, and the machine fetches an answer. The next step, however, is a fully independent agent capable of acting and collaborating on its own without waiting for instructions along the way.
Making choices for you
These new tools will reshape how consumers shop by taking over everyday routines like booking cheap flights, ordering goods, and scanning for discounts. AI author Jonathan Løw explained to TV2 that the technology will soon act on its own.
“AI assistants help when we ask them for something. With AI agents, we get a tool that can act on its own and collaborate with other AI agents without us giving them instructions along the way,” Løw noted.
Autonomous software will soon manage daily calendars, filter out news items, and track price swings directly. Brands will stop fighting for your attention. They must convince your digital butler instead.
“It will change the way the internet works. Instead of us surfing around and making choices, we will have an AI agent that makes the choices for us,” Jonasson said.
Who holds the power
Handing over control saves time, but it carries serious risks. Reports from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies warn that commercial firms could soon control access to information and secretly steer shopping habits. Experts worry about who actually benefits when an algorithm runs your errands.
“We could end up in a place where the digital agent essentially recommends how you should live your life. And it is not certain that those recommendations are driven by what is best for you, but by what makes the most money,” Jonasson warned, calling for a broader public debate on corporate motives.
Even so, the technology does not have to favour tech giants alone. Professor Jan Damsgaard from Copenhagen Business School told TV2 that a custom agent could act as a consumer shield against pushy sales tactics.
“You can be sure that a shop assistant wants to sell you something. With a digital agent, you can instruct it to be more true to you and your needs,” Damsgaard explained.
An invisible revolution
This transition will happen quietly, blending into ordinary morning routines before most people realize a major structural shift has taken place. Daily life will look identical on the surface.
“Our children go to school at 8 in the morning, there is still a mortgage to be paid, and your shirt still needs to be changed. Many will be surprised by how much AI can affect us while everyday life feels just like it usually does,” Jonasson said.
Because these tools operate silently in the background of web platforms and services, the shift will not feel like an overnight technological shock to consumers. Instead, commercial algorithms will simply take over personal decisions bit by bit.
For now, however, people still have to buy their own clothes.
