Agentic Web
The Agentic Web describes a stage of development of the internet in which AI systems carry out tasks online independently – without a human having to confirm every single step. Instead of merely displaying information, the web acts directly through these systems.
Today’s internet is passive. It displays information, and a human decides what happens next. The Agentic Web goes a step further: here, AI systems, so-called agents, independently take over entire chains of tasks. A human sets a goal – for example, “Book me a flight to Barcelona for next Friday under 200 euros” – and the agent handles everything itself: searching, comparing, filling out forms, booking. The web thereby becomes less a source of information than a layer of action.
Why the Agentic Web breaks the internet’s previous logic
Until now, every website was made for human eyes. Buttons, forms, menus – all of this assumes that a human looks and clicks. AI agents can imitate this technically, but it is cumbersome and error-prone. The Agentic Web therefore requires services to open themselves up to agents from the ground up: with clearly structured interfaces, machine-readable offerings, and unambiguous permission rules.
This has economic consequences. Anyone who operates a search engine today earns money by having users see advertising. If an agent takes over the search, no human sees that advertising anymore. Business models based on human attention come under pressure. At the same time, new ones emerge: services could, for example, charge per agent request instead of per page view.
How agents act independently on the web
An AI agent in the Agentic Web works in loops. It receives a goal, plans sub-steps, executes one, looks at the result, and plans again – until the goal is achieved. In doing so, it calls on external tools: a search engine, a booking site, a database, an email API. It therefore does not act in isolation, but actively networks with other services.
For this to work, an agent needs permissions. It must be allowed to know who the user is, and it must be able to act on their behalf – submitting forms, making purchases, scheduling appointments. This is technically complex and immediately raises security questions: What happens if an agent is manipulated and does something wrong on the user’s behalf? This problem is called prompt injection and is considered one of the biggest open vulnerabilities in the Agentic Web.
Multiple agents can also work together. A coordinator agent splits up a large task, sends sub-tasks to specialized sub-agents, and summarizes the results. This sounds abstract, but it corresponds exactly to what a project manager does with their team in a company.
Where the Agentic Web is already becoming visible today
Products like OpenAI’s Operator or Anthropic’s Claude with computer use show early versions of this principle: the user describes a task, the agent opens a browser, navigates through real websites, and clicks its way through forms. This is still imperfect, but it demonstrates the direction.
In companies, agent-supported workflows are already running: an agent monitors incoming orders, checks the inventory level in another system, automatically triggers a reorder in case of a shortage, and writes a summary to the responsible buyer. No human initiated each of these steps individually. This is precisely the core promise of the Agentic Web – and exactly the reason why questions about responsibility and control are becoming louder as these systems spread further.