Two Turtle Doves Taking Flight as Personal AI Companions

12 Days of Christmas Predictions for 2026 — Beyond’s View of What’s Next 

Welcome to Day 2 of our Christmas Predictions for 2026: a series exploring the technologies and behavioural shifts that will genuinely reshape organisations, customers and leaders over the next two years. 

If Day 1 was about AI becoming a silent co-worker inside organisations, Day 2 shifts the lens outward to the consumer.  

Two turtle dove and a personal AI agent

Prediction: Customers Begin Using Their Own AI Agents in Everyday Life 

By 2026, consumers will still browse, search, compare and shop the way they always have. But a noticeable minority will delegate the tedious bits to their own AI agents; personal digital companions that fetch information, check policies, challenge bills, compare prices and manage admin across their digital lives. 

This shift sounds small. But in reality, it rewrites the rules of customer experience and commercial engagement. 

Why Personal AI Agents Are Inevitable 

1. The technology is already in consumers’ hands 

With Apple Intelligence, Google Gemini Nano, ChatGPT mobile agents and Amazon’s personalised LLMs, consumers are quietly being given autonomous micro-capabilities on their devices. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 15% of customer interactions will involve “machine customers” acting on behalf of humans. 

Whilst on the surface, that might sound low. Just remember that 15% of all interactions is an ecosystem-level shock. 

2. Consumers increasingly want delegation, not self-service 

For the past decade, brands have built “self-service” journeys. But according to McKinsey, customers now value convenience over control, and are far more willing to let automation handle simple tasks. 

Personal agents will turn self-service into no-service. Everything just happens. 

3. AI can now interpret real-world complexity, not just structured tasks 

Large language models will be able to read documents, interpret contracts, check for inconsistencies, and surface hidden risks or advantages. Harvard Business Review reports that AI-supported consumers make faster, more confident decisions, especially when dealing with friction-heavy tasks such as financial admin and returns processes. 

Consumers will use AI agents for the same reason that they use price comparison sites: they save time, avoid mistakes, and reduce stress. 

What Brands Need to Prepare For 

1. A new type of customer: the “machine customer” 

The concept (originally developed by Gartner) refers to AI systems that: 

• evaluate options 

• negotiate prices 

• process returns 

• interact with support 

• make purchases (with parameters) 

These agents behave very differently from humans. They expect clarity, consistency, and structured data. They don’t tolerate friction. They don’t forget. They read the small print — every time. 

2. Customer journeys need to be agent-readable 

This is the next big CX frontier: not just designing for humans, but designing for AI agents representing humans. 

That means: 

• structured product data 

• transparent pricing 

• standardised refund terms 

• machine-readable contracts 

• clean metadata 

• API-driven customer support pathways 

Brands that do this early will earn the loyalty of the agents and therefore the customers. 

3. Loyalty and marketing move from persuasion to verification 

Marketing to AI agents is fundamentally different as agents aren’t swayed by brand emotion. They optimise for: 

• price 

• policy 

• quality 

• reliability 

• warranty clarity 

Brands must consequently ensure their data is the differentiator. In short: your customer of 2026 may not be making the decision, their AI will. 

What It Means for Leaders 

1. Prepare for a world where customers don’t always show up themselves 

Your CRM, contact centre, and digital experiences will increasingly deal with automated agents. Are you ready for that? 

2. Transparency becomes non-negotiable 

AI agents will spot inconsistencies that customers never could. Clarity becomes a competitive advantage. 

3. Your data becomes your sales pitch 

If an AI agent can’t interpret your data, you don’t make the shortlist. Simple as that. 

Beyond: Putting Data to Work 

The rise of personal AI agents will punish messy brands. Those with inconsistent data, unclear policies, or friction-heavy journeys will fall behind fast. 

At Beyond, we help businesses prepare by: 

• making pricing, product and policy data machine-readable 

• identifying friction points AI agents will reject 

• building structured information flows for agent-consumable journeys 

• running experiments to understand how AI-driven behaviour changes conversion 

• using data science to model demand patterns in a machine-customer world 

As a starting point you can take our AI Readiness Diagnostic which will help you identify clarity on where you stand, what's missing, and how to move forward responsibly.F ind out more here: https://www.puttingdatatowork.com/assessments-ai-readiness  

If you want 2026 to be the year you become agent-ready, let’s talk and put your data to work: for humans and the AI working for them.