Report cover image

From Gateways to Gatekeepers: When Generative AI and Agentic AI Search Engines Own Your Customer Journey

Publisher IDC
Published Jul 31, 2025
Length 22 Pages
SKU # IDC20265890

Description

This IDC Market Perspective examines the implications of this shift across key technology categories: website front ends (front end as a service [FEaaS]), content management systems (CMSs) and digital experience platforms (DXPs), product information management (PIM) and product experience management (PXM), voice of customer (VOC) tools, marketing/martech and personalization, digital commerce platforms, and customer data platform (CDP) systems. As search platforms evolve into agentic commerce systems, traditional customer experience (CX) software categories face a strategic inflection point. Discovery is shifting away from interfaces and toward machine-mediated decision environments. To remain competitive, vendors must reposition their platforms to support structured, context-rich, and AI-readable content. The analysis outlines where disruption is happening, which industries are most exposed, and how vendors can adapt to stay relevant in an answer-first economy. "If machines can't read it, customers won't see it," says Heather Hershey, research director, Worldwide Digital Commerce Strategies, IDC. "In an AI-first discovery landscape, visibility is earned through structured knowledge, authoritative content, embedded trust signals, and the machine-readiness of product and brand data. This shift will reward vendors that enable machine-readable enrichment and syndication tailored to their platform's functional domain while disadvantaging those still optimized exclusively for human-centric engagement in lieu of machine-led decisioning."

Table of Contents

22 Pages

Executive Snapshot

New Market Developments and Dynamics

Key Terminology for CMOs in the AEO Era

AEO-Driven Discovery and Decision-Making Prioritizes Information Ecosystems Over Interface Design

Website Front Ends/Front End as a Service

Content Management Systems and Digital Experience Platforms

Digital Asset Management Platforms

PIM/PXM Platforms

Voice of Customer, User-Generated Content, and Review Aggregation Platforms

Marketing Technologies and Personalization Engines

Digital Commerce Platforms

Customer Data Platforms

Advice for the Technology Supplier

Recommendations for Technology Vendors Navigating AEO-Driven Discovery

Learn More

Related Research

Synopsis

Search Inside Report

Pricing

Currency Rates
How Do Licenses Work?

How Do Licenses Work?

The primary function of a report license is to define how many people within a company are authorized to use the purchased report. This is separate to how a report might be delivered. Unless specifically identified otherwise, the purchase option is Single User. Below is a helpful description of that license, along with a sampling of others most commonly offered.

  • This license allows only one user to have access to and to use/read the report. It is not one user at a time or one user group; it is an individual who will be reading and utilizing the report.

  • This license allows for the entire purchasing company to read and use the report. This is the license level that would allow for a report to be placed on an internal company shared drive for access by all employees of that direct company. This license does not extend to parent or sister company use.

  • This license is designed to allow an entire department within a company full access to a report. The departmental license is a great option for companies that have more than one location and the department is spread out all over the country/world

  • This license is for companies that have one location where they want the report to be accessible by all employees within that physical location.

  • This is the most flexible of the licensing options. Some publishers will allow you to get a license for a preset number of people (typically 5). These licenses are ideal for small work groups.

License options are at the discretion of each publisher. As such, not all licenses indicated above are available for every product. If you are uncertain of the best license for your needs or would like a license that is not proactively available, please contact us and we will be happy to assist.

Head shot

Questions or Comments?

Our team has the ability to search within reports to verify it suits your needs. We can also help maximize your budget by finding sections of reports you can purchase.
Chat Now
Contact Us