Consumer search is on the verge of a massive transformation, and ARK Invest just mapped it out: AI agents are stepping in to autonomously handle your search, research, and even your checkout.

Think of them as always-on digital assistants that live inside your phone’s OS, doing the heavy lifting of finding, comparing, and curating results—without you typing a single thing after the first question.

But the wild part? You might not even realize you’re not the one making the decisions anymore.

According to ARK Invest’s Big Ideas 2025 report (see full report here), these AI agents are designed to handle everything from product discovery to decision-making.

Ask where to get the best birthday cake in town, and your AI assistant won’t just give you options—it’ll order the cake, schedule the pickup, and add it to your calendar.

All while quietly pulling from multiple search engines, marketplaces, and reviews to surface only the most relevant results.

Here’s the kicker: this shift turns search engines into just one of many background sources.

Consumers won’t browse ten tabs to compare options. The agent does that instantly, compressing the entire funnel—awareness, research, and conversion—into a few curated options, all streamlined into a single interaction.

It’s like Google, Yelp, Amazon, and Instacart all collapsed into one conversation.

This shift also creates a new front line for advertising. As shown in ARK’s chart, AI-curated results become the new battleground for ad placement.

Brands won’t just bid for search keywords—they’ll have to earn a place in the AI agent’s curated shortlist, a future that favors relevance, context, and clean data over loud ad copy.

The implications go deep:

• For consumers, it means fewer decisions, more speed.
  
  

• For brands, it’s a new kind of SEO—training their content to surface well in AI-driven queries.
  
  

• For platforms, it means competing for relevance in a world where user-facing search might quietly disappear.
  
  

Companies like Apple and Google are already investing in this future.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is a signal of where things are headed, while Apple’s rumored AI agent for iOS 19 could turn iPhones into personal search-and-buy hubs.

Meanwhile, startups like Rabbit and Humane are exploring dedicated AI agents untethered from traditional apps altogether.

Bottom line: the search bar might survive, but its role is shrinking.

What’s rising instead? Agents that think, sort, and act on your behalf. The internet just got a new middle layer—and it’s about to change everything.