Canary in the Coal Mine

Greg Twemlow argues that the dominance of major retail aggregators like Amazon is being threatened by the rise of AI buying agents. These autonomous bots allow consumers to engage in "headless" commerce, bypassing traditional digital storefronts to purchase goods directly from manufacturer databases. While this shift eliminates the "middleman tax" and restores brand sovereignty, it removes the trust layer and logistical efficiency provided by large platforms. The author suggests that smart contracts will likely replace traditional consumer protections, though the push for direct-to-consumer shipping may lead to increased environmental costs. Ultimately, the friction of manual checkout is the only remaining barrier protecting current e-commerce giants from total algorithmic disintermediation. Read the article.About the Author - Greg Twemlow writes and teaches at the intersection of technology, education, and human judgment. He works with educators and businesses to make AI explainable and assessable in classrooms and boardrooms — to ensure AI users show their process and own their decisions. His cognition protocol, the Context & Critique Rule™, is built on a three-step process: Evidence → Cognition → Discernment — a bridge from what’s scattered to what’s chosen. Context & Critique → Accountable AI™. © 2025 Greg Twemlow. “Context & Critique → Accountable AI” and “Context & Critique Rule” are unregistered trademarks (™).

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