Advise

What should you do about what’s changing?

We turn the weekly intelligence into a short list of priorities, a point of view on what to do, and a plan to discuss with your team.

Updated throughout the month as new evidence arrives

Illustrative sample

Input from Understand · Sep 8 to 14, 2026 · Read the briefing →

Top priorities

The issues we think deserve the most attention right now.

Priority 01

Customers are beginning to delegate parts of the decision

The story

Meta Muse can browse, fill forms, negotiate and make purchases with approval. Instinct gives assistants their own email identity. Visa's research suggests customers are much more willing to delegate payments when a trusted institution stands behind the transaction.

Why this is a priority

The customer journey may increasingly involve software discovering, comparing or acting on a product before the customer interacts directly with the company.

What we think you should do

Audit where agents can already discover, understand and act on your products.

How to do it

01Define the most important customer jobs and questions in the category.
02Test how major AI assistants discover and describe your products.
03Compare your company with the competitors that matter most.
04Test whether an agent can understand eligibility, pricing and next steps.
05Identify where the journey requires a human-specific step.
06Identify trust, identity or authorization barriers.
07Determine which gaps are content problems, journey problems or policy problems.

What this lets you decide

Does the company need an owner and roadmap for agent-led customer journeys?

What we need from your team

Any existing work on AI, discovery, onboarding, servicing, authentication or customer journeys.

Requires internal context from your team. ThenForward brings the outside view and the recommendation.

Build from this priority →

Priority 02

Trusted intermediaries are becoming part of the operating model

The story

Lowe's is letting creators participate in product development, not only promotion. Visa's research also shows that established brands can materially change how comfortable customers are with delegated action.

Why this is a priority

Trusted people and institutions may increasingly influence not only what customers hear, but what they choose, trust and use.

What we think you should do

Identify one trusted intermediary that already influences your customer and design a pilot around utility, not promotion.

Priority 03

Distribution is moving into environments companies do not own

The story

Synchrony is putting financing offers inside ChatGPT. Chime is reaching employees through the workplace. X now routes creator income into X Money.

Why this is a priority

Products, payments and financial relationships are increasingly appearing inside environments where the customer is already doing something else.

What we think you should do

Map where customers already earn, work, compare or transact and identify one distribution relationship worth testing.

From ThenForward

Relevant developments we send between reports, with a short point of view on why they matter to your company.

Real external developments · Sample client interpretation

Sep 9

Visa

Trust in agentic payments rises sharply when Visa stands behind the transaction

Why I think you should care · This suggests trust may be a prerequisite for delegated action. The winner may not be the company with the most capable agent, but the company or institution that makes customers comfortable letting the agent act.

Impact on our view

Delegated Customer Journey remains Priority #1.

Sep 9

TechCrunch

Instinct gives each user's assistant its own email identity

Why I think you should care · Businesses may increasingly receive requests from software acting for a customer rather than from the customer directly. That changes assumptions around onboarding, servicing and communications.

Impact on our view

Add agent identity and communications to the journey audit.

Your team can send ThenForward an article, competitor move, question or internal issue at any time. We respond with a point of view and whether it changes what we think matters.

Next decision session

60 minutes

What we want to discuss

01Delegated customer journeyWhere could an agent already influence or execute a customer decision today?
02Trusted intermediaryWhich people or institutions already have enough credibility to change customer behavior?
03Embedded distributionWhere can the product appear before the customer starts actively shopping?

What we need from your team before the call

Any existing AI / customer-journey work
Current creator, community or trusted-partner activity
Existing strategic partnerships or embedded distribution work

Watching

Important, but not something we think you should act on yet.

Agent identity

Moves up as more assistants receive persistent identities or accounts of their own.

Trust + authorization

Moves up as banks, payment networks or platforms give customers direct control over what agents are allowed to do.

Creator ownership

Moves up as creators receive a deeper role in product development, distribution or economics.

Platform financial relationships

Moves up as more platforms use payouts or earnings to pull customers into their own financial products.

Employer distribution

Moves up as more consumer products enter through benefits or workplace relationships.