Event Highlights
Our 16 June 2026 edition explored the rise of the agentic economy and what it means for platforms, commerce and regulation. We opened with a fireside chat with Fabrice Grinda, one of the world’s most prolific marketplace investors, on how AI is really transforming marketplaces, and why the biggest risk isn’t disintermediation but missing the opportunity. We then dove into agentic commerce and what happens when AI agents become the customer, before turning to the policy challenges of governing autonomous AI.
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Insights from the event
Platform Leaders provides strategic insights into key topics and allow experts to share complementary perspectives to shape the debate so that the potential of digital markets can be unlocked for all.
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Meet our Speakers
Platform Leaders brings together entrepreneurs, policy makers, academics and practitioners to exchange insights and best practices on the future of digital platforms and ecosystems.
Agenda
Programme for the event.
3:30 pm - 3:35 pm
Welcome Talk
Introducing Platform Leaders.
3:35 pm - 4:05 pm
KEYNOTE: MARKETPLACES IN THE AGE OF AI: OPPORTUNITY OR EXISTENTIAL THREAT?
AI agents are buying, selling and negotiating on behalf of users. Payment networks are building agent-to-agent infrastructure. Marketplace founders are facing what may be "peak fear" about disintermediation by large language models. But is the panic justified?
Fabrice Grinda has invested in over 1,300 marketplace businesses and seen more than 300 exits, making him one of the world's most prolific marketplace investors. He founded OLX, which grew to 11,000 employees across 30 countries and over 300 million monthly users. Forbes has called him the #1 angel investor in the world.
In this fireside conversation, Fabrice will draw on decades of pattern recognition across thousands of platform businesses to challenge the prevailing narrative around AI and marketplaces. He'll explain where he sees AI already reshaping marketplace economics in ways most founders are underestimating, and what the history of technological revolutions tells us about what comes next.
Whether you're a marketplace founder navigating the AI transition, an investor reassessing platform defensibility, or a policymaker trying to understand what the agentic economy means in practice, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.
4:05 pm - 4:45 pm
AGENTIC COMMERCE: WHEN AI BECOMES THE CUSTOMER
More than half of consumers already use AI as part of their shopping journey. But we're moving beyond recommendations. OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol now connects ChatGPT to Walmart, Target, Sephora and a dozen other major retailers. Google's A2A protocol lets agents transact with merchants directly. Visa, Mastercard and American Express are all building agent-to-agent payment infrastructure.
This panel explores what happens to platforms, marketplaces and e-commerce in general when a growing share of "users" are AI agents rather than humans.
• What happens to pricing and discovery when agents initiate transactions?
• How do you detect and prevent agent biases? Whose interests is the agent really serving?
• Is brand loyalty dead if every option is compared instantly?
• Who gets disintermediated as interfaces shift from human UX to agent APIs?
• And how should merchants prepare when their primary "customer" is an algorithm?
Join us for a forward-looking discussion on the future of agentic commerce, and what it means for businesses, consumers, and the wider economy.
4:45 pm - 5:25 pm
REGULATING AI IN AN AGENTIC WORLD: CONVERGENCE, DIVERGENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY
AI usage is becoming ubiquitous and agents are rapidly moving from experiment to deployment. This raises important questions for policymakers, regulators and businesses about how to create governance frameworks that protect consumers and promote competition, while enabling innovation and growth.
The timing is significant: the EU's Digital Markets Act review suggests AI and cloud are new priorities while many provisions of the EU AI Act initially applicable from August 2026 have just been postponed to 2027/2028. These new and sometimes overlapping frameworks are shaping the environment in which platforms deploy AI agents. At the same time, new agents from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and others are coming to market with increasing capabilities.
Join us to discuss the future of regulation in an agentic world and what it means for you, your organisation, and the wider economy.
• What regulatory principles should guide regulators when considering AI & its agents?
• Who is responsible when an AI agent acts on behalf of a user?
• How do we balance consumer protection, competition, innovation and competitiveness in this fast-moving landscape?
• Which AI Act obligations are coming into force in 2026, which ones have been postponed and what should firms do to prepare?
• The EU, UK and US are taking different approaches to AI governance. Where is convergence possible, and how can businesses navigate the differences?
• As agentic capabilities increase exponentially (e.g. Mythos) how can we be confident that they remain aligned with our needs?
5:25 pm - 5:25 pm
CONFERENCE WRAP UP
Closing remarks and key insights from the event by our conference co-chair.