51. Agents Will Disrupt Search & Shopping [Devi Parikh, CEO Yutori, ex Meta
Mon Feb 02 2026
While the world is obsessed with the Moltbot/Clawdbot AI agent, founders like Devi Parikh are laying the foundation for how agents will transform search and shopping—agents that monitor, negotiate, and navigate on behalf of users, securely.
Search is becoming proactive. Shopping is becoming delegated. And the next interface won’t be a results page—it’ll be agents running quietly in the background, surfacing what matters when it matters.
How agents turn search into continuous monitoring
Why shopping shifts from browsing to delegation
Where value shows up first in real workflows
What trust requires before agents can transact
The path from alerts → actions → autonomy
In this episode, Devi breaks down how Scouts reframes search as “future-facing discovery”: track price drops, in-stock alerts, sales leads, funding news, flights, and local events—then get notified the moment conditions change.
We also explore what comes next: moving from monitoring to task completion—where agents can execute purchases and bookings with explicit confirmations, hard guardrails, and a deliberate “trust staircase” designed to prevent surprises.
If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast and leave a rating + review—it helps more builders find the show.
Subscribe to the Design of AI Substack for in-depth AI product strategy resources, operator-grade analysis, and frameworks on what makes AI products succeed (and why they fail).
This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research—a strategy + research partner for product leaders shipping AI-enabled experiences. We help teams define success metrics that actually matter, validate value before scaling, and reduce trust and adoption risk through AI strategy, UX evaluation, and evidence-driven product decisions.
Devi Parikh is the co-founder and co-CEO of Yutori, and was previously a Senior Director in Generative AI at Meta and an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on human–AI collaboration, generative AI, multimodal AI, and AI for creativity. She holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and has received recognitions including the PAMI Mark Everingham Prize.
Try Scouts: https://scouts.yutori.com/
Blog: The Bitter Lesson for Web Agents: https://yutori.com/blog/the-bitter-lesson-for-web-agents
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While the world is obsessed with the Moltbot/Clawdbot AI agent, founders like Devi Parikh are laying the foundation for how agents will transform search and shopping—agents that monitor, negotiate, and navigate on behalf of users, securely. Search is becoming proactive. Shopping is becoming delegated. And the next interface won’t be a results page—it’ll be agents running quietly in the background, surfacing what matters when it matters. How agents turn search into continuous monitoring Why shopping shifts from browsing to delegation Where value shows up first in real workflows What trust requires before agents can transact The path from alerts → actions → autonomy In this episode, Devi breaks down how Scouts reframes search as “future-facing discovery”: track price drops, in-stock alerts, sales leads, funding news, flights, and local events—then get notified the moment conditions change. We also explore what comes next: moving from monitoring to task completion—where agents can execute purchases and bookings with explicit confirmations, hard guardrails, and a deliberate “trust staircase” designed to prevent surprises. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast and leave a rating + review—it helps more builders find the show. Subscribe to the Design of AI Substack for in-depth AI product strategy resources, operator-grade analysis, and frameworks on what makes AI products succeed (and why they fail). This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research—a strategy + research partner for product leaders shipping AI-enabled experiences. We help teams define success metrics that actually matter, validate value before scaling, and reduce trust and adoption risk through AI strategy, UX evaluation, and evidence-driven product decisions. Devi Parikh is the co-founder and co-CEO of Yutori, and was previously a Senior Director in Generative AI at Meta and an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on human–AI collaboration, generative AI, multimodal AI, and AI for creativity. She holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and has received recognitions including the PAMI Mark Everingham Prize. Try Scouts: https://scouts.yutori.com/ Blog: The Bitter Lesson for Web Agents: https://yutori.com/blog/the-bitter-lesson-for-web-agents