For Brands in an Agentic AI World, It’s Time to Choose a Role
CANNES, France – Agentic AI is collapsing what remains of the purchase funnel, and brands that haven’t decided what part they want to play risk being written out of the script entirely.
That’s the core argument from Karin Timpone, veteran CMO of the MLB and Marriott. For her, the question isn’t whether AI will mediate consumer decisions – it’s whether a brand will show up as an advisor, an assistant, or an operator. Getting that wrong, she argues, is where the real vulnerability lies.
“I think it’s important to understand what role you’re going to play – and that’s one of the first things marketers should really be considering as they’re planning how to use AI,” said Timpone, CEO and founder of ClearPrompt, in a video interview with Beet.TV recorded at the Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions, presented by DaVinci Commerce Accenture.
Three levels of agentic involvement
Timpone laid out a spectrum of how agentic AI can function in the consumer journey, and the distinctions matter for how brands position themselves.
- At the lightest touch, AI acts as an advisor – surfacing information to sharpen a decision the consumer has already largely made.
- In the middle sits the full assistant model, where AI gathers and sorts options while the consumer retains some agency.
- At the far end, the AI operates autonomously: collecting, evaluating, and transacting on the consumer’s behalf.
Each of those modes, she argued, demands a different brand posture and a different content strategy – because the moment of consideration, and who controls it, shifts dramatically across the three.
The stakes are rising fast. Gartner projects that spending on supply chain management software incorporating agentic AI will climb from under $2 billion in 2025 to $53 billion by 2030, while separately forecasting that 40% of enterprise applications will feature task-specific AI agents by 2026, up from less than 5% today. Brands that haven’t mapped their role in that landscape are already behind.
PR’s unexpected comeback
One of Timpone’s more counterintuitive recommendations is that the AI era may rehabilitate an often-undervalued discipline: communications and public relations. As large language models increasingly draw on recent, publicly indexed information to form recommendations, the brands that generate a steady stream of credible, current coverage stand to benefit disproportionately.
“LLMs, particularly those that are really biased for recency, really rely on current news – and there’s really no function like comms to kind of gather the story,” she said. From a consultant who has built content marketing units inside major organizations and spent time inside two Hollywood studios, that observation carries some weight.
Timpone went further, arguing that corporate communications needs to be elevated to an organizing principle across marketing functions, with the CEO treated as a primary brand asset. “The CEO now is one of the best brand ambassadors of your business,” she said. “It’s really important for comms to be a part of the organizing principle across all of this work.”
Challengers may have the edge
When asked where brands are most vulnerable in agentic commerce, Timpone said one company’s vulnerability is another’s opening. Larger incumbents carrying legacy system debt may find themselves outmaneuvered by leaner challengers that are, in her phrase, “native to the system.”
“Larger companies don’t necessarily have an advantage and have to really go quickly,” she said. “But I go back to my recommendation about a very clear perspective on what role the brand wants to play.” The advisor, assistant, and operator framework, she argued, is a practical tool for aligning cross-functional teams around something executable.
“The consumer, ultimately, will be the final arbiter. “
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by DaVinci Commerce. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France – Agentic AI is collapsing what remains of the purchase funnel, and brands that haven’t decided what part they want to play risk being written out of the script entirely.
That’s the core argument from Karin Timpone, veteran CMO of the MLB and Marriott. For her, the question isn’t whether AI will mediate consumer decisions – it’s whether a brand will show up as an advisor, an assistant, or an operator. Getting that wrong, she argues, is where the real vulnerability lies.
“I think it’s important to understand what role you’re going to play – and that’s one of the first things marketers should really be considering as they’re planning how to use AI,” said Timpone, CEO and founder of ClearPrompt, in a video interview with Beet.TV recorded at the Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions, presented by DaVinci Commerce Accenture.
Three levels of agentic involvement
Timpone laid out a spectrum of how agentic AI can function in the consumer journey, and the distinctions matter for how brands position themselves.
- At the lightest touch, AI acts as an advisor – surfacing information to sharpen a decision the consumer has already largely made.
- In the middle sits the full assistant model, where AI gathers and sorts options while the consumer retains some agency.
- At the far end, the AI operates autonomously: collecting, evaluating, and transacting on the consumer’s behalf.
Each of those modes, she argued, demands a different brand posture and a different content strategy – because the moment of consideration, and who controls it, shifts dramatically across the three.
The stakes are rising fast. Gartner projects that spending on supply chain management software incorporating agentic AI will climb from under $2 billion in 2025 to $53 billion by 2030, while separately forecasting that 40% of enterprise applications will feature task-specific AI agents by 2026, up from less than 5% today. Brands that haven’t mapped their role in that landscape are already behind.
PR’s unexpected comeback
One of Timpone’s more counterintuitive recommendations is that the AI era may rehabilitate an often-undervalued discipline: communications and public relations. As large language models increasingly draw on recent, publicly indexed information to form recommendations, the brands that generate a steady stream of credible, current coverage stand to benefit disproportionately.
“LLMs, particularly those that are really biased for recency, really rely on current news – and there’s really no function like comms to kind of gather the story,” she said. From a consultant who has built content marketing units inside major organizations and spent time inside two Hollywood studios, that observation carries some weight.
Timpone went further, arguing that corporate communications needs to be elevated to an organizing principle across marketing functions, with the CEO treated as a primary brand asset. “The CEO now is one of the best brand ambassadors of your business,” she said. “It’s really important for comms to be a part of the organizing principle across all of this work.”
Challengers may have the edge
When asked where brands are most vulnerable in agentic commerce, Timpone said one company’s vulnerability is another’s opening. Larger incumbents carrying legacy system debt may find themselves outmaneuvered by leaner challengers that are, in her phrase, “native to the system.”
“Larger companies don’t necessarily have an advantage and have to really go quickly,” she said. “But I go back to my recommendation about a very clear perspective on what role the brand wants to play.” The advisor, assistant, and operator framework, she argued, is a practical tool for aligning cross-functional teams around something executable.
“The consumer, ultimately, will be the final arbiter. “
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by DaVinci Commerce. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
