Intentional loyalty: your best defence in an AI-driven marketplace

As AI assistants increasingly sit between brands and customers, recommending products, comparing prices, and even completing purchases, the risk of disintermediation grows.

In this environment, brands who rely on purely transactional loyalty are especially vulnerable because algorithms are designed to optimise for convenience and value, precisely the factors those weaker forms of loyalty depend on.

Intentional loyalty, by contrast, is far more resistant to AI-driven substitution. When a customer has a genuine preference for a brand, which might be rooted in trust, identity, nostalgia or some other form of emotional connection, they are less likely to outsource decision-making entirely to the algorithm.

Instead of asking 'what's the cheapest?' or 'what's fastest?', they ask for a specific brand by name. That shift, from indiscriminate intent to branded intent, is the difference between being interchangeable and being chosen.

What this means for strategy

AI compresses the consideration set; intentional loyalty ensures you remain inside it.

Without that anchor, brands risk becoming invisible to the customer, reduced to commodities competing on price, availability, or algorithmic ranking. With it, they cultivate and retain direct demand, even in mediated environments.

Looking at the brands that 'get' this is instructive.

In the UK, energy brand Octopus is perhaps the best example, arguably doing what many would have previously thought impossible: creating active engagement and genuine advocacy in that most vanilla, 'love to hate it' of categories, energy. That kind of behaviour is difficult for AI to displace because it is not purely rational; it is relational.

M&S' recent relaunch of Sparks is another good example. They already have one of the most loyal customer bases out there, but now they have aligned the way they recognise this with the things that their shoppers actually care about in a rewards programme.

Pret and Leon had it, once upon a time, but changes in ownership led to a loss of what made them distinctive and customers have been critical of a lack of authenticity. Leon in particular has paid a heavy price, experiencing significant turbulence following its buyback by co-founder John Vincent in late 2025, entering into administration to then restructure following heavy losses under previous owners EG Group and Asda, with Vincent talking of how Leon had 'drifted' from its values.

In banking, everyone points to the likes of Monzo as a good example of a brand with high intentional loyalty. But customers remain sceptical about using challenger brands as their 'main bank' and arguably it's actually the traditional, high-street brands that are doing more interesting things, think Nationwide and Lloyds, for example.

The most effective strategies use transactional tools to attract and retain customers initially, while deliberately investing in experiences, storytelling, and values to convert that behaviour into intentional loyalty over time.

Competitive advantage lies in giving customers a reason to care.

The takeaway is clear: as AI agents become more powerful, brand preference becomes a form of infrastructure. Intentional loyalty is no longer just a marketing outcome, it is a hedge against irrelevance.