AI and the Commoditization of Everything

AI and the Commoditization of Everything
by John Stegall


AI doesn’t care about your feelings. It doesn’t build rapport. What it does incredibly well is analyze data, predict preferences, and streamline decisions. In a world moving toward instant gratification and price transparency, emotionless efficiency could become the new gold standard.

Take real estate: ChatGPT-like bots are already being used to answer buyer questions, schedule showings, and generate contracts — all without human interaction. In auto sales, Tesla has proven that cars can be sold direct-to-consumer, online, with zero haggling.

But what happens when AI begins to handle luxury transactions?

The Luxury Conundrum: Is Brand Still King?

High-end brands like Louis Vuitton, Rolex, or Nike have long relied on carefully curated marketing and perceived exclusivity. But here’s a truth many consumers are waking up to: many of these luxury items are produced in the same Chinese factories as their so-called knockoffs. In some cases, the only difference is branding and quality control.

If AI begins to strip away the veil of brand mystique — showing consumers how similar a $1,500 handbag is to a $150 one — the emotional justification for paying luxury prices starts to crack.

That undermines a fundamental pillar of capitalism: brand premium pricing.

Studies and Signals of Change

Research from McKinsey and Deloitte suggests AI will replace or augment 40-60% of current sales tasks in the next decade. Chatbots are already managing millions of customer interactions per day, and tools like Salesforce Einstein are generating predictive analytics better than most veteran sales teams.

In China, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) and WeChat AI agents already drive purchase behavior at scale. These systems analyze your interests, serve you customized products, and handle transactions — all without humans involved.

If these trends continue globally, we may be looking at a future where the human element of sales is not just unnecessary — it’s inefficient.

Will Capitalism Adapt or Collapse?

Capitalism has thrived on innovation, but also on aspiration. If AI strips away emotion, removes the art of persuasion, and lays bare the truth behind luxury and branding, what happens to the desire that fuels consumerism?

More critically:
    •    Will people still overpay for status?
    •    Will jobless salespeople find new roles, or become relics of a pre-AI economy?
    •    Will AI agents favor transparency over manipulation — and if so, how do you “sell” in a system that tells you the truth?

These are not small questions. They cut to the core of Western consumer capitalism — a system that depends on wants, not just needs.

The Bottom Line

The AI salesman is no longer science fiction — it’s fast becoming our reality. In parts of the world where emotional selling was never the norm, the transition will be seamless. In the U.S., where sales is an art form, the change may be more disruptive than we expect.

Ultimately, this isn’t just about jobs or commissions — it’s about how we assign value, how we make decisions, and what role emotion and illusion play in our economy.

The world may be ready for the AI salesman. But whether capitalism survives it intact… is another question entirely.

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