Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products and services online. The traditional marketing funnel—from inspiration to loyalty—is compressing rapidly as generative AI tools, large language models (LLMs), and agentic commerce capture audiences and redirect consumer behavior. In response, boards and C-suites are assessing the vulnerabilities in their customer journey—from discovery to conversion to service.
To understand which industries are most exposed to AI-driven disruption from consumer-facing LLMs and AI assistants, BCG and Moloco have developed the Consumer AI Disruption Index, a tool that assesses 17 consumer-facing verticals along two axes: AI-driven disruption and strength of customer relationships. This approach demystifies abstract AI hype to by identifying different types of disruption across verticals and concretely spelling out strategic responses.
We measure AI-driven disruption through two metrics: disruption of customer discovery vis-à-vis conventional marketing channels, and the service model of a brand. We measure strength of customer relationships by combining three metrics: acquisition strength (the ratio of organic advertising to paid advertising), sustained loyalty (stickiness after app installation), and platform engagement depth (proportion of time customers spend on apps versus websites).
In a survey conducted by BCG and Moloco of 238 senior marketing leaders, 67% said that they expect to see a high level of AI-driven disruption to their vertical’s consumer journey. And almost all of them expect at least some level of disruption to occur. But verticals are not likely to feel the impacts equally or in the same ways.
Mapping disruption exposure against relationship strength reveals four strategic archetypes:
- Breached. This archetype is characterized by high susceptibility to AI disruption and weak customer relationships. Survival depends on strengthening loyalty and embedding AI within owned platforms. Example verticals include travel, retail, and news.
- Undefended. In this archetype, the risk of disruption is moderate but relationships are weak. The challenge is to convert transactional usage into durable, trust-based loyalty through personalization and AI partnerships. Examples include gaming, dating, and casino and sports betting.
- Contested. This archetype pairs strong customer relationships with meaningful service disruption vulnerability. Players have the opportunity to define how AI integrates into their vertical. One example is productivity.
- Secured. Characteristics of this archetype are low disruption risk and strong moats, often reinforced by regulatory moats and high trust. The priority of verticals in this area should be to maintain leadership by using AI to drive efficiency and hyperpersonalized engagement. Examples include financial services, fintech, and media/streaming.
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Strategic Implications
As consumer journeys shift from an open-web environment with well-understood organic and paid traffic levers to AI-mediated experiences that increasingly disintermediate consumers from brands, it is crucial for brands to act quickly. Those that fail to adapt are at risk of suffering declines in traffic or, in more extreme cases, existential collapse as consumers fulfill their needs without ever leaving an AI assistant.
Leading organizations are already prioritizing first-party data capture, in-house AI capabilities, and experimentation with AI-driven formats, but these steps represent only a baseline response. Winning in the new landscape requires building defensibility across discovery, service, and relationships.
The winning players will be those who proactively optimize for AI discovery, diversify away from declining search channels, and embed structured data collection throughout the customer journey. Simultaneously, brands must make strategic decisions about how to integrate most effectively with AI ecosystems or how to close off their platforms from those ecosystems.
Sustainable advantage will come not only from mitigating disruption, but also from strengthening customer relationships in ways that AI cannot easily replicate. Companies are building differentiation through verified expertise, proprietary data, and trusted human touchpoints; investing in communities and social graphs; and anchoring consumer journeys within owned apps. Together, these will plays allow brands to defend against AI-driven commoditization and to convert disruption into a channel for durable growth and competitive advantage.
