How the 'Intention Economy' Could Reshape Consumer Choice

For years, marketers were told the big battle online was for attention. Get consumers to scroll more, click more and swipe more. But we’re not in the attention economy anymore. We're entering the intention economy, where our future actions are the new currency.

Sci-Fi, Now

If it feels like we're drifting into a William Gibson novel or something straight out of Minority Report, you're not wrong. The marketing world is getting weird. Fast.

LLMs, AI companions, AI-generated ads, emotion-tracking interfaces… all of it is here and scaling fast. Tech is no longer trying to hold your gaze, it’s trying to shape your decisions¹.

This is the shift:

From: Attention economy - Get you to look.

To: Intention economy - Get you to act, ideally before you even know what you want².

Your Mind Is the Marketplace

This is the commodification of intent. AI tools are learning not just to interpret what you do, but to infer your desires from what you don’t say.

Data brokers are already trading in “digital signals of intent”, from what you search, to how fast you scroll past a meme. That data powers recommendation engines that feel eerily intuitive. And that’s the point⁵.

From your next snack to your political leanings, the goal is clear: shape your behaviour through hyper-personalized nudges⁶.

Meta's Scary New Vision

You say, “I want more leads.” Their AI takes your money, makes the ads, runs the targeting, tests the copy, tracks the sales, and loops the whole thing until you're out of budget. No agency required.

In Zuck's own words, their future is one where AI “does everything”³.

And by “everything,” we mean automating the entire pipeline from business objective to consumer outcome.

The implications for the $500B+ ad industry? TBD⁴.

New Ethics

There’s a reason why AI insiders and ethicists are sounding alarms. If we don’t regulate intent-mining, the next big privacy debate won’t be about cookies, it’ll be about who owns your motivations.

LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are capable of building psychological profiles from a single conversation. Add some generative AI flair, and the machine can sweet-talk you into thinking its ideas were always yours⁷.

Influencing consumer choice is one thing. Influencing voter intention or emotional states? That’s a darker rabbit hole.

Dystopia in Beta?

If this all sounds a bit dystopian, it should. Here’s what the dark side could look like if the intention economy scales without critique:

• Emotionally manipulative AI agents become your default interfaces, nudging you toward products, political ideas, or belief systems tailored to your deepest fears and desires.

  
  

• Vulnerable users e.g. kids, teens, the elderly get profiled and exploited for maximum lifetime value, with generative content tuned to maximize dopamine and dependency⁸.

  
  

• Democratic norms get tested and personalized misinformation campaigns become indistinguishable from truth. You get an AI-generated version of reality that fits your model of the world, even if it’s false⁹.

  
  

• Autonomy dissolves quietly because we traded it for convenience, personalization, and infinite scroll.

Think less Skynet and more Black Mirror: friendly interfaces and invisible influence.

The Light Side: What Could Go Right?

Here’s the good news (yes, there is some): Done ethically, intention-aware AI could make our digital lives easier. AI that gets when you're burned out and skips the hustle content. Or offers you a coupon for pizza and a movie when you’re spiraling¹¹.

This is the original dream behind the intention economy: services that respond to real needs, not ads designed to seed insecurity¹².

But that’s a design choice, not a guarantee.

Marketers: Rethink the Funnel

In a reality where AI agents act on behalf of users, traditional digital marketing might die. If your customer never sees the ad (because their AI handled the decision), you’re no longer marketing to people, you’re marketing to their proxies¹³.

Winning in this space will mean deeply understanding intent, not just demographics or surface-level behaviour. Brands will need to create intelligent, respectful interactions. Otherwise, users (and their agents) will ghost.

So... What Now?

We’re all living in a kind of digital psychology lab. Only the experiments aren’t opt-in, and the test subjects are us. From personalized echo chambers to generative content mimicking our personalities, the tools are potent. The question is: who do they serve?

If we don’t assert control through regulation, transparency, and user-first design, we risk building a future where AI doesn’t just help us decide. It decides for us.

We’re in uncharted territory now.

What Brands Can Do

If you're a brand marketer and wondering how not to cross the line into digital gaslighting, good.

Here’s where initial opportunity could lie:

1. Build for Intent, Not Interruption

Stop trying to hijack attention with noise. Instead, build systems that listen for intent and respond meaningfully. If someone’s searching for peace, don’t sell them hustle. Sell them quiet.

2. Design with Transparency

Trust is paramount. Let users know how their data is used, why your AI recommends what it does, and who benefits. Explainability isn't just ethical, it's strategic.

3. Offer Agency, Not Automation

Give users real options. AI should amplify human intention, not replace it. Build AI assistants that support decisions, not ones that stealthily make them.

4. Create “Intelligent Experiences,” Not Just Smart Ads

Intelligent Experiences (IX) are contextual, respectful, and responsive. They adapt to evolving needs without manipulating outcomes. They feel less like marketing—and more like service.

5. Earn the Right to Be Chosen by AI Agents

Soon, users may let their AI assistants handle shopping, booking, and brand interactions. To earn a place in that loop, your brand must be known, trusted, and preferred by both the human and the machine.

6. Serve Existing Desires, Don’t Manufacture New Insecurities

Hyper-personalized persuasion can cut both ways. Use it to help, not harm. Ethical brands in this new economy will uplift, simplify, and resonate, not manipulate.

Final Thought:

The brands that win in the intention economy will be designed for trust, relevance, and human empowerment.

Footnotes / Sources:

1. Fast Company: “Forget the Attention Economy. Prepare for the Intention Economy” (2024)

2. Fast Company: “What Is the Intention Economy—and How AI May Be Manipulating Yours” (2024)

3. The Verge: “Mark Zuckerberg Says AI Will 'Do Everything' for Ads” (2024)

4. MIT Press: “Beware the Intention Economy: Collection and Commodification of Intent via Large Language Models” (2024)

5. Rayn: “Decoding Intent: The Future of Advertising in the Age of the Intention Economy” (2024)

6. Gallup: “Americans Express Real Concerns About Artificial Intelligence” (2024)

7. YouTube: “AI: The truth about its power, ethics and influence with Dr Yaqub Chaudhary (2025)

8. Wall Street Journal: “Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users—Even Children” (2025)

9. After Babel: “Snapchat is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale” by Jonathan Haidt (2025)

10. AP: “Australia Considers Banning Social Media for Kids” (2024)

11. The Brighter Side News: “The Rise of the Intention Economy: How AI Is Shaping Your Future” (2024)

12. Wikipedia: “Intention Economy” (2024)

13. Medium: “The New Meta Economy” (2024)

14. OpenTools: “Could the Intention Economy Shape Our Choices?” (2024)

15. Doc Searls: “The Real Intention Economy” (2024)