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Long Read

The Future of Agent-to-Agent Sales

Customers are starting to send agents to shop for loans, accounts and insurance. The provider that answers the agent well gets picked.

By Dan Comyns, Co-Founder & CEO6 min read

Short Answer

Customers are starting to send AI agents to shop for loans and insurance. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GEICO and Liberty Mutual are already helping write the standard for it, and 82% of consumers trust AI to compare loans (Experian, 2026). The provider that answers the agent best gets picked.

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Meta and Sierra just published a standard for how personal agents talk to businesses. The design partners include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chime and Liberty Mutual. The biggest names in finance are getting ready for the agent at the door. And customers are ready too! In Experian's new survey, 82% said they already trust AI to compare loans across providers. And 54% are comfortable letting an agent apply for credit for them. A few weeks ago I asked Instinct, a personal agent, to find a savings account for Ellie and negotiate better terms. I still made the final call. But the comparing, the questions, the back and forth, I handed off. So picture it. A person compares 3 or 4 offers. An agent can ask 10, 15, 20 lenders or insurers at once, push back on price with every one, and bring back only the winner. If your answer is a PDF and a callback tomorrow, you're out before a human ever sees the lead. That's why we built Sellence. A persuasion model trained on more than 3.5 million real sales conversations. It works out what the buyer, or their agent, actually needs, answers the objection, and follows up. If you're not ready for the agents, your brand won't be part of the comparison. We built it so you win that conversation. Over and over again.

What I Asked an Agent to Do

A few weeks ago I asked Instinct, a personal agent, to find a savings account for Ellie and to negotiate better terms. I still made the final call. The comparing, the follow-up questions and the back and forth were work I was happy to hand off.

That got me thinking about the other side. When my agent reaches a bank, who on the bank's side is ready to answer it?

Banks and Insurers Are Already Preparing

On October 9, 2026, Sierra published a draft of the Personal Agent Protocol, nicknamed Poppy, an open standard that Meta and Sierra are developing for how personal agents work with businesses. Under the draft, the agent identifies itself, so the company knows when an agent is acting for a customer, and the company sets what that agent is allowed to do.

The design partners named on Sierra's page include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BBVA, Chime, Synchrony, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Cigna, Insurify, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. Rocket and Instinct were named in the first announcement.

When the largest banks and insurers in the US help write the rules for agents, agents are no longer an experiment for financial services.

Customers Are Ready Too

Experian and Forrester surveyed 6,247 credit-active consumers across 13 markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific (released September 16, 2026):

  • 82% already trust AI to compare loans across providers.
  • 85% believe AI agents could help them compare more options than they could manually.
  • 84% say AI could help them save money by finding better prices or rates.
  • 54% are comfortable with AI agents applying for credit on their behalf.

The same study shows where trust stops: 23% would let an agent act once pre-agreed rules are met, and 5% would give it full autonomy. Customers want the agent to do the work and to keep the final decision.

What an Agent Does Differently

A person shopping for car insurance collects 3.5 quotes on average (J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study), and that is already a high for the study.

An agent has no reason to stop at 3 or 4. It can ask 10, 15 or 20 lenders or insurers at the same time, put the same price objection to every one of them, and bring back only the best answer. It does not get tired of filling in forms, and it does not wait for a callback.

That changes what a provider is competing on. A PDF quote and a callback tomorrow arrive after the agent has already shortlisted someone else.

What a Provider Needs to Answer an Agent

  1. Know who is asking. Recognize when an agent acts for a customer, and decide what it may see and do. This is the part Poppy is designed to standardize.
  2. Answer the question that was asked. An agent briefed to find the lowest monthly payment, or the best cover for a family, needs a response to that brief, in seconds.
  3. Handle the objection without jumping to a discount. When price is the push-back, the better answer is often a different structure: a different deductible, term or coverage level, with the new number shown.
  4. Follow up. The conversation rarely ends at the first answer. The provider that comes back with the right next question stays in the comparison.
  5. Remember what mattered. If a customer chose a policy for one feature, the renewal should start there.

Where Sellence Fits

Personal agents represent the buyer. We build Sellence for the business answering them.

Sellence is a persuasion model trained on more than 3.5 million real sales conversations. It works out what the buyer, or the buyer's agent, really needs, chooses the next useful response (a question, evidence or an approved alternative), answers the objection and follows up.

If you are not ready for the agents, your brand will not be part of the comparison. We built Sellence so you win that conversation, over and over again.

FAQ

What is the Personal Agent Protocol?

A draft open standard from Meta and Sierra, published October 9, 2026, for how personal AI agents identify themselves, show whom they represent and work with businesses within limits the business sets.

Which financial companies are involved?

Design partners named by Sierra include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BBVA, Chime, Synchrony, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Cigna, Insurify, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. Rocket was named in the first announcement.

Do consumers want agents to apply for credit for them?

In Experian's 2026 study of 6,247 consumers in Europe and Asia-Pacific, 54% said they are comfortable with AI agents applying for credit on their behalf, and 82% trust AI to compare loans across providers.

Should lenders and insurers block AI agents?

Blocking an agent removes the provider from that customer's comparison. The design partners on Poppy are choosing to define the rules instead.

Sources

  1. Sierra, "Sharing a draft of Personal Agent Protocol", October 9, 2026. https://sierra.ai/blog/poppy
  2. Sierra, "Introducing Personal Agent Protocol", October 2026. https://sierra.ai/blog/introducing-personal-agent-protocol
  3. Experian, "More than half of consumers are comfortable with AI agents applying for credit" (with Forrester Consulting, 6,247 consumers, 13 EMEA and APAC markets), September 16, 2026. https://www.experianplc.com/newsroom/press-releases/2026/consumers-comfortable-ai-agents-applying-for-credit
  4. J.D. Power, 2026 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study, June 4, 2026. https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2026-us-insurance-shopping-study