The AI shopping assistant takeover is no longer theoretical. It’s here, and it’s determined to make traditional brand loyalty obsolete.

About the Author
Steve Bocska is the CEO of PUG Interactive, a pioneer in gamified engagement and loyalty. A former video game producer for Electronic Arts, Disney, Sega, and Ubisoft, Steve helps brands transform their customer relationships into meaningful, memorable experiences.

When I wrote “Loyalty Is Dead. Google Just Killed It,” I wasn’t trying to be provocative for its own sake (though I’ll admit that’s an occasional pastime of mine). I was trying to warn the industry that the ground beneath our feet was shifting with AI-powered shopping assistants soon disrupting the fragile bridge between brands and their customers.

At the time, some said I was exaggerating. That customers wouldn’t trust AI with their purchases. That brand loyalty was too emotional, too human, too deeply ingrained to be displaced by a digital assistant.

And then? Walmart happened…

The Tipping Point: Walmart + OpenAI

Walmart just announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT-powered shopping directly into its customer experience.

Customers can now tell ChatGPT things like “Make sure I never run out of milk and my usual laundry detergent” — and the system will handle the rest. No search. No scrolling. No human decision-making required. Just pure, glorious convenience.

Some are calling it “agentic commerce.” I call it the beginning of the end of brand recall. And I predicted it months ago.

(On that note, I’ve never understood people who say, “I hate to say I told you so.” I quite enjoy it, if I’m completely honest.)

From Brand Loyalty to Algorithmic Preference

We’re about to see a live demonstration of what I’ve been warning about: a zero-click commerce model where AI mediates the purchase, not the customer.

In this new world, loyalty programs become background noise. Points, tiers, and perks mean nothing if the AI isn’t specifically called upon to take them into account when making its recommendation. The customer’s emotional connection to a brand, indeed the very foundation of loyalty, is quietly replaced by the algorithm’s logic.

The assistant doesn’t care who you are. It cares what’s available, what’s cheapest, and what’s most efficient. And that means brands no longer compete for hearts and minds — they compete for prompts and placement.

When AI Does the Math

How does it work? A well-directed agentic AI shopper will dispassionately calculate the best product or service options for its master using a complete evaluation of every available purchase factor:

• • the base price of an item,

• • the value of any discounts or promotions, and

• • the true economic benefit of loyalty program points, tiers, and redemption schemes.

That last point is key. The agent will select whichever option delivers the greatest real-world benefit to the customer — exclusive or emotion, habit, or other human bias.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: when you factor in the administrative, management, and fulfilment costs built into most loyalty programs, the AI will often find that a simple discount outperforms the loyalty offer.

In other words, when AI does the math, loyalty loses.

The costly burden of maintaining expensive loyalty program overhead becomes brutally transparent to the AI. What once felt like a reward for loyalty will be revealed as an inefficiency — a hidden cost of maintaining a system designed to manufacture attachment.

And the smarter AI gets, the faster it will expose the illusion that loyalty programs ever truly rewarded the customer.

The Real Lesson Here

Walmart’s move this week proves this is no longer just a hyperbolic and hypothetical threat. It’s become a live-market reality, with AI capable of replacing the customer’s role in the decision process. The luxury of having a personal shopper who knows your every taste, preference, and need is no longer exclusive to the wealthy. Thanks to AI, it’s now a mass-market experience.

The bad news is that the old loyalty playbook — points, perks, and post-purchase engagement — was built for a world of human friction. And AI removes that friction entirely.

The only viable antidote is relationship orchestration: enjoyable interactions, narratives, emotions, shared experiences, and communities that build attachment before the assistant is asked. Because once AI owns the moment of choice, it owns everything down through to the transaction. 

Final Thought

So yes, I told you so. But not out of arrogance. Out of urgency. Because while others are still debating whether AI is an opportunity or a threat, Walmart — the world’s largest retailer — just placed its bet. And it’s not betting on a loyalty points program. 

It’s betting on AI.