THESISApril 4, 2025

Agentic AI: The Most Transformative Internet Technology Since HTML

Introduction: The Web is Changing Again

When HTML arrived, no one set out to reinvent the internet.

It was just another layer—one more protocol stacked onto existing infrastructure like TCP/IP. But HTML brought something new: a way to structure information visually. The browser became our gateway to the web. Websites appeared, browsers multiplied, and before long, the visual internet became the default interface of the digital age.

For decades, everything revolved around this simple loop: user to browser, browser to server, and back again.

Now, something else is emerging—and it's shifting the foundation.

At first, the signs were subtle. Websites quietly became APIs first, visuals second. Information was shaped for machines, not eyes. But with agentic AI user now begin delegating tasks instead of clicking on websites—relying on agents that can access services, fetch information, and execute decisions on their behalf. The web shifts from a marketplace where users shop and compare, to a restaurant where they place an order and receive a result.

This isn't just automation. It's a new mode of interaction.

Where users once clicked and scrolled, agents now perceive and act. Users don't engage with websites—they instruct agents. Businesses, in turn, are starting to adapt—not for human UX, but for machine comprehension. Interfaces, once essential, are becoming optional.

We thought these were edge cases—until we realized they weren't.

Like HTML before it, this isn't just a toolset upgrade. It's structural. It's redefining how information flows, how commerce functions, and how companies compete.

The visual web isn't gone—but it's no longer the center.

Agentic AI isn't a layer on top of the internet. It's the new default interface.

We're not witnessing a trend. We're witnessing the next web.


1. Agentic AI Replaces the Browser

The browser is fading into the background.

For 30 years, it was the primary interface of the web. It shaped how we designed, navigated, and monetized everything online. But agents don't browse. They don't scroll, tap, or click. They act. They interpret goals, execute tasks, and return outcomes—without ever opening a window.

That shift—from interaction to delegation—isn't cosmetic. It breaks the model the internet was built on.

In the agentic web, the UX is invisible. The experience is compressed into intent and result. The surface doesn't matter; only the substance does. When you ask an agent to book a flight, summarize a report, or reorder a product, the browser doesn't even enter the picture.

Being "on the web" no longer means being seen. It means being usable by agents—reliably, quickly, and meaningfully.


2. Agentic AI Rewrites the Commercial Foundations of the Web

The internet economy was built on visibility.

SEO, display ads, UX design, conversion funnels—everything was optimized for eyeballs. Attention was the currency. But agents don't have eyes. They don't linger, get influenced, or impulse-click. They evaluate options, make decisions, and move on.

This flips the commercial logic of the web.

Advertising, once the dominant monetization engine, starts to fade when agents filter it out. The importance of brand becomes relative—agents optimize for performance, not perception. Instead of competing for attention, businesses now compete for outcome quality and machine-trustworthiness.

Search becomes orchestration. Funnels become function calls. Marketing becomes recommendation.

The next winners aren't those who look the best—they're those who deliver the best result with the least friction.


3. Agentic AI Enables New Protocols and Technology Stacks

This isn't just a UX disruption. It's a stack-level reset.

Just as HTML and HTTP defined the web era of browsers, new standards are emerging to define the agentic web. These aren't just wrappers around APIs—they're frameworks for entirely new machine-native interactions.

We're already seeing the groundwork:

  • Anthropic's MCP (Message Capture Protocol) is a bold rethinking of how agents store and structure memory across interactions—a foundation for persistent, goal-driven behavior across services.
  • Google's A2A (Agent-to-Agent) interoperability initiative lays the groundwork for agents to collaborate across platforms, with open standards for identity, intent-sharing, and task delegation.

These are not side projects. They are early blueprints of a machine-first web, where agents are the primary participants and protocols evolve for autonomy, not visibility.

It's not about formatting responses for humans. It's about structuring reality for agents.


Conclusion: The Next Web Won't Be Seen—It Will Be Done

The first web made information visual.

The next web makes action invisible.

Agentic AI is replacing the browser, dismantling attention-based business models, and accelerating the rise of new protocols purpose-built for autonomous systems. What we're seeing isn't just another layer—it's a new foundation.

Users aren't browsing anymore. They're delegating. And with every delegated task, a bit more of the old internet fades away.

This is the beginning of an agentic era—a web designed not for people to explore, but for intelligent systems to act.

The next internet won't be navigated. It will be executed.