Agentic AI and the Risk of Flattening Brand Differentiators

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Why Agentic AI Could Flatten Brand Differentiators — And What Publishers Can Do About It

James LePage, Director of AI Engineering and co-lead of the WordPress AI Team, outlined a vision for the Agentic AI Web in which websites become interactive interfaces and data sources, rather than curated experiences. This shift could flatten brand identity and voice, particularly for informational, service, and media sites. However, LePage highlights ways to adapt that may preserve differentiation.

Evolution Toward Autonomy

LePage frames the shift as one toward agentic autonomy, where AI agents interact with websites at a detailed level (“the trees”), while humans supervise at a strategic level (“the forest”). He describes three stages:

  1. Current State: AI-assisted web search (Perplexity-style) gathers content, generates syntheses, and presents it to users, with humans still making decisions.

  2. Near-Term: Users delegate tasks with specific instructions; agents can execute actions such as purchases or bookings.

  3. Future: Agents operate autonomously within standing guidelines, acting more like independent economic actors.

Websites as Data Sources

A central risk LePage identifies is that AI agents extract and synthesize content independently, reducing the control that content creators have over how their brand and voice are represented.

“When an agent visits your website, that control diminishes. The agent extracts the information it needs and moves on. It synthesizes your content according to its own logic. It represents you to its user based on what it found, not necessarily how you’d want to be represented.”

In effect, websites become data sources rather than experiences. For commercial sites, this may be manageable since transactions are the primary value exchange. For informational sites, it’s more complex: branding, voice, and perspective can be flattened, and users may never engage directly with the original site.

Redefining Website Interactions

LePage points out that AI opens new possibilities for personalization and immersive experiences. Websites can deploy AI-driven interactive features such as:

  • Personalized data visualizations

  • Product configurators

  • Contextual content flows

“When AI handles the informational layer, the experiential layer becomes a differentiator.”

The implication: in a world where AI can deliver information anywhere, the value of a website is increasingly tied to the quality of the interactive, experiential layer, not the content alone.

Flattened Branding vs. Active Participation

For sites that fail to adapt, AI may flatten their unique value:

“Your brand, your voice, your perspective… these get flattened when an agent summarizes your content alongside everyone else’s.”

The alternative is for publishers to deploy their own AI agents that can interact with visiting agents, manage how content is represented, and negotiate outcomes. LePage envisions a future where:

  • Websites act as principals with delegated AI agents

  • Visitors bring AI agents representing their goals and preferences

  • Agents communicate, exchange data, and deliver outcomes aligned with their principals

This agent-to-agent communication infrastructure is already under development through initiatives like MCP (Linux Foundation) and Agent2Agent, with support from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Adaptation or Obsolescence

LePage emphasizes a stark choice:

“Publishers that evolve along with the Agentic AI revolution will have the most effective agent-to-agent interactions, while those that stay behind will become data to be scraped.”

Product and professional service sites can extract clear value, but informational sites face a more uncertain, complex future where AI intermediates the user experience.

Key Takeaways for Publishers:

  1. Interactive Experience Matters: Content alone will not differentiate you; focus on immersive, personalized interactions.

  2. Deploy Your Own AI Agent: Control how your data is represented and negotiate outcomes with visiting AI agents.

  3. Adapt Early: Websites that do not evolve may be reduced to passive data sources rather than active participants in user interactions.

  4. Expect Complexity for Media/Informational Sites: Flattened branding and voice are a real risk; innovation in UX and agentic interactions will be key.