The Agentic Consumer: Trust in the Age of AI Agents

Artificial intelligence innovation does not seem to slow down and it is rather moving forward at an incredible pace. Just a couple of years on from its advent, artificial intelligence is evolving from chatbots into autonomous agents capable of executing multiple tasks for humans, with commerce being an early use case. Yet, an important question emerges: how can consumers keep trust in the systems acting on their behalf?

To map out strategic solutions to bridge the gap between fast-moving innovation and consumer and data protection, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Lunch on ‘The Agentic Consumer: Building Trust in the Age of AI Agents.’ During this intimate gathering, a group of experts and decision-makers came together to share their visions on the way forward. High-level participants included Joan Barata, member, Center for Law, Democracy and Society, Queen Mary University of London; Els Bruggeman, head of policy, Euroconsumers; Natascha Gerlach, director, privacy policy, Centre for Information Policy Leadership; Mark Leiser, professor, Riga Graduate School of Law and author of Dark Patterns, Deceptive Design and the Law; Fausto Matos, policy assistant and member of the cabinet of Executive Vice-President and Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, European Commission; Keerat Sharma, vice-president of ads privacy and safety at Google; and Sandrell Sultana, head of European Union public policy, Stripe.