The era of artificial intelligence agents. A radical transformation that threatens the current throne of the internet
Imagine waking up on a day when you don't start your routine browsing the news, checking emails, or searching for the best travel offers online, and instead you find a personal AI agent waiting for you, who has already organised your day, booked your flight, and selected the best marketing offers for you, all before you sip your morning coffee.
This scenario is no longer just an idea inspired by science fiction films; today it has become a reality that arouses great excitement in the corridors of Silicon Valley and, at the same time, sets off sirens among internet giants who fear for their prestige.
As the generative AI boom enters its third year, expectations are echoed that 2025 will see the dawn of AI agents, these digital assistants who interact with users, conduct complex searches, collect information with extreme accuracy, organise content according to user preferences, and even anticipate their needs before expressing them.
This scenario may seem far-fetched, and many may wonder how realistic these forecasts are, especially given the long history of unfulfilled technological predictions, but if this futuristic vision of smart agents comes true, it will cause an earthquake in the structure of the internet, threatening to undermine the companies that occupy the throne of the digital world today.
Therefore, in this article we will find out how AI agents can change the user experience online and what are the possible effects of their appearance on major companies in the internet sector. Does this technology represent the pinnacle of development in the field of artificial intelligence or can it go much further?
A radical change in the way we interact with the internet:
Mark Shmulik and Nikhil Devnani, two senior internet analysts at Bernstein, raised the revolutionary idea that the spread of artificial intelligence agents may lead to a decline in the role of the traditional internet; instead of users browsing websites and applications directly, they will increasingly rely on these agents for information and content.
Analysts liken artificial intelligence agents to the inclusive broker, which will take over the task of collecting content from various sources, organising it, and presenting it to users in a customised and effective way, meaning that sites and applications will not disappear completely, but their role will change radically, as they will become sources of content and information, accessed by artificial intelligence agents.
Analysts warn that this shift could lead to a radical change in the structure of the internet because large platforms that collect content will collapse, and then many companies that rely on the content aggregation model will face a significant reduction in their value due to the structural changes that artificial intelligence agents will bring.
Simplify the travel experience with artificial intelligence agents:
Imagine the scenario of your travels to Dubai. You arrive at the airport, and you face the usual challenge of moving to your company's office in the Dubai World Trade Centre. In this scenario, Bernstein analysts ask a fundamental question: Does it really matter, which means you will use to get to your destination? Would you prefer Uber, Careem, taxi, or airport car service? Most likely, the answer is no. What really interests you is to achieve maximum efficiency, which is to get to the Dubai World Trade Centre as soon as possible, at the lowest cost, and with the highest level of comfort.
Imagine that this agent is able to organise the entire transition process on your behalf, without the need for your intervention, and then this transformation will radically change how we interact with the internet, as there will be no need to conduct traditional searches through search engines such as Google, and you may not even need to use your smartphone.
Bernstein analysts emphasise that companies that currently control shared transport services, such as Uber and Lyft, rely on supply control, but with the advent of artificial intelligence agents, demand will be consolidated, and the agent will take over the task of choosing the best available options.
This means that you may never need to open the shared transfer app again, as your agent will be in charge of choosing the best options available based on your preferences and circumstances.
Clash of the Giants. Who controls artificial intelligence agents?
Internet analysts Mark Shmulik and Nikhil Devnani point out that AI agents may represent the peak of development in the relationship between technology companies and consumers, as instead of directly interacting with sites and applications, the AI agent will become a central point of contact through which all services and content are routed.
This means that the companies that control this new digital portal will be able to charge fees to other providers, similar to the fees that Google charges for search ads or Apple charges for its store applications.
Shmulik believes that AI agents may go beyond their role as intermediaries for content aggregation to become stand-alone markets, which threatens to undermine the role of traditional intermediaries, pushing major and emerging technology companies to compete fiercely for control of this future digital portal.
In late January, OpenAI launched a comprehensive artificial intelligence agent called Operator, which uses a web browser to perform tasks on behalf of users, such as booking flights and purchasing products. Users can choose which sites they want to use or rely on search engines such as Google, but the direct relationship in this case is between the OpenAI agent and the user, which reduces the importance of traditional search engines.
Google did not stand still but launched the Mariner project, which is based on advanced artificial intelligence models Gemini from Google, which is an experimental extension of the Chrome browser, and can use the browser and perform tasks through it automatically.
The Mariner project is a major achievement in the field of web task automation, as this project has achieved amazing results with a success rate of 83.5% in the WebVoyager standard, a strict standard that measures the client's ability to perform complex web tasks in a realistic environment.
Anthropic has also unveiled a similar tool called Computer Use, which enables the Claude 3.5 Sonnet prototype to use a computer similarly to humans. In a practical experiment to demonstrate the capabilities of the tool, a team of engineers asked the tool to order enough food to feed a group, and the intelligent agent independently chose to order pizza.
Alex Albert, Head of Developer Relations at anthropic, explained that the agent browsed the DoorDash application online, and after about a minute, Claude's model decided to order us some pizza. This demonstrates the agent's ability to independently perform complex tasks, from browsing applications to making purchase decisions.
In a step to enhance these capabilities, Anthropic launched the Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, which features a hybrid thinking approach, as this new model aims to improve the agent's ability to understand complex contexts and make more accurate and intelligent decisions. Other companies, such as Perplexity, are also developing similar tools.
These proxies may be offered via new voice-based devices, such as meta smart glasses, vision Pro glasses from Apple, or Android phones and Chromebooks, which work with Gemini models from Google.
Is there a future beyond artificial intelligence agents
While the idea of artificial intelligence agents provokes radical transformations in our digital world, a crucial question arises: Does this technology represent the pinnacle of development in the field of artificial intelligence and digital communication? The answer is probably no.
Attention is turning to Elon Musk's Neuralink company, which is seeking to make a quantum leap in this field by developing electronic chips that can be implanted in human brains. This ambitious technology aims to create a direct and unbreakable link between companies and consumers, as the chip can read users' thoughts, desires, and needs directly from their brains instead of relying on complex analytics of user behaviour via search engines, smartphone applications, and social media platforms.
This scenario may seem like a hit of science fiction, but it is not, because executives of large technology companies, such as Google, have been talking about this possibility for years. In 2010, Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, discussed this concept with the Atlantic magazine, suggesting that implanting chips in the brain could be the next logical step in the evolution of search engines.
Varian explained his vision, saying: We are now searching for information via Google using computers and smartphones But in the future, we may move to a new stage, which is the implantation of chips in the brain, he said.
Conclusion:
The world of technology is witnessing an unprecedented transformation with the rise of artificial intelligence agents, as this promising development will change the way we interact with the internet and impose new challenges on major technology companies. But the most important question remains: How will we deal with this new technology, and how will we make sure that it is used for the benefit of all mankind?
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