How do companies price in agents?

I have Muse checking in weekly on flights for me back home for Christmas. I can tell you that I’m not the only one doing this. While the ease of having someone check the flights and try to find the best price is as easy as it’s ever been, I’m not so sure this will be a net positive for consumers down the road in terms of pure dollar spend.

Companies aren’t naive to what’s happening right now. They have more data and insights on consumer spending than we do. As such, anecdotally prices seem much higher than before. Part of that is due to the war in Iran, but I struggle to believe that is the only reason.

As companies get smarter about agents and AI doing our shopping for us, I’d imagine we’ll start to see prices increase to accommodate. Perhaps that is the product of the free markets — consumers may be willing to spend more if AI does the shopping for us.