The fierce battle to lead the agentic web begins (and there promises to be trips everywhere)

The future of the internet seems to pass inevitably through agentic AI. And sooner rather than later the network of networks will be filled to the brim with countless AI agents who, on behalf of flesh-and-blood humans, will be able to autonomously undertake a vast myriad of tasks. The battle to prevail in the era of the agentic web that is on the horizon is already underway and promises to be extraordinarily fierce (because there is, after all, a lot at stake).

Those who have already immersed themselves in this battle (which is shaping up to be exceptionally lucrative) are focusing for now on the development of protocols that hatch from the shell with the ultimate goal of becoming standard (and thus leaving behind the companies that get on this train later).

In November 2024, Anthropic launched, for example, the protocol MCP (Model Context Protocol)which allows AI agents to communicate and interact with third-party software without necessarily relying on separate interfaces. And Anthropic’s MCP is now the basis for other protocols of a similar nature.

Different alliances are currently emerging with the ultimate goal of establishing a standard that allows AI agents to process 100% online payments. Google has been the first company to venture into this market with the AP2 protocol (Agents Payment Protocol) with partners such as PayPal, Mastercard and American Express. Just a few weeks ago OpenAI also presented the ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) protocol in collaboration with the online payment processing company Stripe. And recently Visa also joined such a loud battle with the launch of the TAP protocol which, developed together with Cloudfare, promises to be compatible with other protocols such as ACP.

The new agentic website is emerging as a true orchard (and there will be efforts to plant the seed there)

In the not too distant future, the AI ​​agents that will populate the agentic web will be in a position not only to undertake payments in a fully autonomous manner, but also to buy and sell advertising space on the network of networks.. With this function in mind, the AdCP (Ad Context Protocol) protocol was hatched just a few days ago. At the head of this protocol, which aspires to become a standard, is Brian O’Kelley, co-founder of Appnexus. And its initiative also has the support of companies such as Yahoo and PubMatic.

He AdCP protocol carries the rubric of relatively small companies in the field of programmatic advertising, whose “players” clearly consider the buying and selling of online advertising with the support of AI agents as a good business. In fact, this new vein of business is so extremely promising that even the CRM giant Salesforce, which until now had viewed the online advertising market rather from the sidelines, I would be willing to fight face to face in this segment with giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

It makes sense in any case that more companies (large and small) are daring to challenge Google for the crown of online advertising. right now, when the Mountain View company is under the scrutiny of competition authorities in both the United States and Europe. After all, the investigations that Google is currently facing could lead the company to get rid of its powerful “ad tech” division. In this context, and given the emergence of the new agentic web, It is obviously a historic opportunity for other “players” to try to undermine Google’s privileged position in the field of online advertising.