Microsoft is proposing a new vision for the internet that shifts from user-led interactions to an AI agent-based system.

The company introduced the concept of the “open agentic web” at its Build conference in Seattle last month.

This vision includes AI agents that navigate websites, collect data, and interact with one another to complete tasks such as booking holidays or managing expense reports.

CEO Satya Nadella provided examples of these agents fixing coding errors, generating presentations, and automating routine tasks.

Microsoft is also advocating for a new communication protocol, the model context protocol, to standardize interactions between these agents.

Chirag Shah, a professor of information science at the University of Washington, warns against handing important decisions to AI, stressing that machines lack human awareness of consequences.

Ultimately, Microsoft’s vision faces technical, ethical, and adoption challenges that will determine whether users are ready to trust AI with online tasks.

🔗 Source: Tribune News Service

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ AI agents follow a historical pattern of interface evolution

Microsoft’s “open agentic web” vision represents the next phase in a consistent pattern of computing interfaces becoming more abstracted from technical complexity.

This evolution mirrors previous transformative shifts: from command-line interfaces to graphical user interfaces in the 1980s, then to mobile touch interfaces in the 2000s, each making technology more accessible while hiding complexity.

The AI market is projected to grow at 27.7% annually, reaching $826.7 billion by 2030, indicating substantial economic incentives driving this transition 1.

Similar to how early smartphones faced skepticism about battery life and connectivity limitations, Microsoft’s agent-based approach faces questions about accuracy and real-world utility.

The competitive landscape shows all major tech companies investing heavily in this vision, with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon projected to spend a combined $255 billion on AI by 2025 1.

2️⃣ Trust and liability remain critical barriers to AI agent adoption

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