Episode

The end of ads? AI agents are about to change how we buy

Podcast: a16z crypto show
Published: Apr 27, 2026
Duration seconds: 3429
Processing state: not_requested
Canonical source: https://web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/open-agentic-commerce-aAL_gDeW
Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/1344/afp-848985-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9/episodes/391bc12c-fa9e-45aa-8694-d2996eee54e8/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9&awEpisodeId=391bc12c-fa9e-45aa-8694-d2996eee54e8&feed=XPOpH7r4
JSON: /v1/public/podcasts/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/episodes/the-end-of-ads-ai-agents-are-about-to-change-how-we-buy
Markdown: /podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/the-end-of-ads-ai-agents-are-about-to-change-how-we-buy.md

Actions

POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/episodes/the-end-of-ads-ai-agents-are-about-to-change-how-we-buy/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/the-end-of-ads-ai-agents-are-about-to-change-how-we-buy.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Agents can now browse, decide, and buy on your behalf. So what happens to the internet's business model? Sam Ragsdale (founder & CEO of Merit Systems) joins a16z crypto's Eddy Lazzarin, Noah Levine, and Robert Hackett to unpack the open agentic commerce stack — from the headless merchant thesis to stablecoins vs. credit cards, and why the web's economic contract is quietly breaking.