"You Now Have Two Customers: The Human and Their Agent"

"You Now Have Two Customers: The Human and Their Agent"

From CoinDesk Podcast Network by CoinDesk

July 15, 2026 · 42 min

About this episode

Raja Rajamannar discusses the complexities of marketing in an era where consumers are accompanied by AI agents, emphasizing the need to cater to both parties.

Why humans won't shop alone anymore. Raja Rajamannar, Senior Fellow at Mastercard, joins CoinDesk’s Sam Ewen for a conversation that is equal parts blockchain brand masterclass and roadmap for what marketing looks like when agents start making the decisions. Raja makes the case that agentic commerce doesn't simplify the marketer's job, it doubles it because now you have to win over the human and their agent, and the criteria for each are completely different. - Timecodes: 0:00 – Rethinking sales: humans vs. AI agents 2:17 – Crypto's branding problem 5:47 – Preserving value and remittances as use cases 7:53 – Cash to credit cards: an early parallel to crypto 14:31 – Money, emotion, and the Mastercard brand journey 17:48 – Experiential marketing over traditional ads 19:00 – Mastercard-flavored macarons and sensory branding 20:17 – The rise of agentic commerce 24:38 – Marketing to both humans and their AI agents 29:20 – Building empathy into AI transactions - This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠. - Ledn provides a secure and transparent way to access liquidity while maintaining your bitcoin…

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