AI is collapsing the marketing funnel as 33% of consumers now discover brands via AI agents: Moloco-BCG report

Artificial intelligence is rapidly dismantling the traditional marketing funnel, with consumer discovery, decision-making and purchasing increasingly collapsing into a single AI-led interaction. According to a new report by Moloco, in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 33% of US adults now discover brands through personal AI agents, while 47% already use AI tools to research purchases.

The report, titled The AI Disruption Index, is based on a global survey of 283 senior marketing leaders across 15 industry verticals and five regions, alongside in-depth interviews with 15 C-suite and VP-level executives. These insights are reinforced by performance analysis of more than 3,000 mobile apps representing over 200 billion downloads, drawing on Moloco first-party data as well as inputs from Sensor Tower and SEMrush.

One of the clearest data signals highlighted in the report is the sharp erosion of search-led discovery. When Google’s AI Overviews are shown, 80% of searches now end without a click, significantly reducing traffic to brand-owned websites. This shift has disproportionately impacted industries that rely heavily on paid and organic search for acquisition.

“Inspiration, search and decision-making are no longer separate steps,” the report notes, arguing that AI is compressing what was once a multi-stage funnel into a single conversational flow. The implications are already visible: nearly 30% of consumers say they are comfortable letting AI make purchases on their behalf, signalling a shift from AI as an advisory layer to AI as an execution layer.

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To understand which industries are most exposed, the report introduces the AI Disruption Index, which evaluates sectors along two quantified dimensions: risk of AI disruption, covering both discovery and service replacement, and strength of customer relationships, measured through retention, loyalty, app engagement and reliance on paid acquisition. Based on these measures, industries are grouped into four categories: Breached, Contested, Undefended and Secured.

Sectors such as travel, news, education, retail and auto marketplaces fall into the “Breached” category, facing both high disruption risk and weak direct customer relationships. In travel, AI is collapsing inspiration, comparison and booking into a single interface, threatening online travel agencies that depend on search visibility. As one Head of Marketing at a global travel app told researchers, “The rigid booking flow we’re used to, origin, destination, dates and filters, doesn’t have to exist in an AI world.”

News publishers face the most immediate impact. The report cites data showing that organic traffic has already fallen by around 26%, as AI systems increasingly summarise content directly for users. This has knock-on effects for subscriptions and monetisation. “If users have already gotten the content from the LLM, they might not need more,” said an SVP of brand marketing at a leading news publisher, adding that this significantly reduces conversion likelihood.

Education platforms also face elevated disruption risk, as AI systems can deliver personalised learning at near-zero marginal cost. While certification-based models retain some defensibility, content-heavy platforms remain vulnerable. “Search has historically been our strongest channel, but we’re seeing growing pressure as AI summaries start appearing even above paid results,” said a global head of marketing strategy at an education app.

Retail and e-commerce are similarly exposed. As agentic AI begins to manage product discovery, comparison and checkout end-to-end, brands without unique inventory or fulfilment capabilities risk being commoditised. A head of media at a global e-commerce brand noted, “That page is not just for people like you, it is very specifically for you and your household. One hundred percent personalisation is coming sooner rather than later.”

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Auto marketplaces emerge as one of the weakest-positioned categories, with the lowest customer relationship strength in the index. Their web-heavy, lead-generation models make them vulnerable as AI aggregates listings and connects buyers directly to sellers. However, some executives caution against overstating AI’s ability to replace visual browsing. “AI guidance can help, but it doesn’t replace browsing and comparing listings,” said the CMO of an auto marketplace.

By contrast, financial services, fintech, media and streaming platforms, and on-demand services are categorised as more “Secured”. These industries benefit from regulatory barriers, proprietary data, licensed content, or physical infrastructure that AI cannot easily replicate. Fintech platforms, for instance, show 71% retention and 81% app-based engagement, giving them greater control over customer relationships.

“AI isn’t sending users ten options anymore, it’s sending one,” said a director of growth at a financial services comparison platform. “And we need to be that one.”

Several sectors sit in the “Contested” middle ground, including productivity tools, health and fitness, gaming, dating and social platforms. Productivity tools face high disruption pressure as AI agents learn to replicate workflows, but deep integration into daily routines provides temporary protection. Still, the report notes that around 40% of traffic for productivity platforms comes from AI-vulnerable discovery channels.

Health and fitness apps face similar pressures. “App store discoverability is going to be at risk, people may just go straight to ChatGPT and never search the stores,” warned a CMO at a health and fitness company, underscoring concerns around future acquisition costs.

Across all 15 verticals studied, one pattern is consistent: strong, direct customer relationships dramatically reduce AI disruption risk. Brands with high mobile app engagement, habitual usage and access to first-party data are far less dependent on disrupted channels such as search, programmatic web advertising and affiliate traffic.

In response, the report identifies three strategic priorities emerging among forward-looking CMOs. First is investing in owned digital experiences, particularly mobile apps, which allow brands to control discovery, personalisation and conversion. Second is owning and activating first-party customer data, embedding data capture throughout the journey rather than only at checkout. Third is rebalancing channel mix, shifting spend away from search-heavy strategies towards more resilient channels such as in-app marketing, CRM and retail media.

“Customer relationships are the durable asset of the AI future,” the report concludes. As AI continues to reshape discovery and commerce, brands that fail to build direct engagement risk becoming invisible data suppliers to AI systems, while those with strong customer connections are better positioned to defend relevance, and capture growth, in an AI-mediated economy.