In-depth exploration of AI agents: Where will it go after the hype?

Author: Outlier Ventures

Compiled by: Felix,

The accelerated integration of AI and decentralized technology infrastructure is fundamentally changing the entire landscape of the internet.

This powerful synergy is giving rise to a new era, in which autonomous AI agents are no longer just a futuristic concept, but are about to become a reality, redefining the way we interact with the internet and conduct economic activities.

But nowadays the hype surrounding agents is everywhere, the real question is: how will it develop in the future?

The agent is a brand new interface designed specifically for delegation.

These intelligent systems are capable of interpreting user intent and executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention, marking a significant transformation that unleashes limitless possibilities for innovation across various industries. The framework of the paper "The Post Web" and the expectations for the evolution of the current web paradigm provide crucial context for understanding and leveraging the rapidly evolving field of AI agents.

The paper argues that the core concept of agency lies in delegation. Users do not need to manually click and browse the internet; instead, they delegate their intentions to AI agents, which operate on their behalf in services, infrastructure, and markets.

This transformation opens up huge opportunities, primarily for the tools and infrastructure needed to drive the agency system. There is expected to be significant demand for the following aspects:

• Proxy software development kit and training framework
• Orchestration Layer of Multi-Agent Coordination
• Secure deployment environment
• Tools used to define, validate, and monitor proxy behavior
• With the surge in the number and types of agents, the need for systems that can manage complexity and ensure trust has also grown.

Establish trust in autonomous agents

The key to the successful adoption of autonomous agents lies in establishing unwavering trust. This requires the development of robust security protocols and transparent verification mechanisms, potentially leveraging the immutable characteristics of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to ensure that agents act according to user intentions and effectively reduce the risk of malicious behavior. On-chain verification of agent behavior will achieve:

• Transparent audit trail
• Encryption guarantees compliance
• Mitigate malicious behavior
• Agency Reputation and Accountability

The intention economy relies on these mechanisms, as trust is key to achieving scale.

The Rise of Professional AI Agents

In the envisioned intention economy, the internet will be optimally organized around addressing user intent, which will greatly drive the demand for specialized AI agents tailored to specific needs and uses.

• Personal delegation: Handling everything from scheduling to finance.
• Financial Agency: Execute decentralized financial transactions and manage digital assets
• Data and Research Agency: Collecting and organizing high-quality data
• DAO Governance Agent: Participate in voting and decentralized governance

Every professional field creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Proxy Stack

Agents do not appear out of thin air. They require a complete ecosystem to operate, develop, and unleash real economic value. For entrepreneurs, this is the true frontier: creating tools and devices for the agent economy. Here are some of the biggest opportunities:

Agency market and reputation system

The rise of AI agents will give birth to a wild west of online services, and not every agent can be trusted.

Founders of marketplace platforms that can build reliable agents for users to search, verify, and deploy will have a huge first-mover advantage. Imagine an "app store" specifically designed for autonomous agents:

• To compare the actual performance of the agent (speed, success rate, security), not just what they claim.
• On-chain reputation can demonstrate the long-term performance of agents, making it easy to identify reliable and high-risk services.
• The intelligent matching engine can connect users in real-time with suitable agents for their tasks.

Trust is essential, and market platforms that can verify trust will prevail.

The role of personalized interfaces and "Thin Web"

Even in a world driven by agents, humans still crave interaction. This has given rise to a huge demand for dynamic personalized interfaces that can adjust in real-time according to users' intentions, preferences, and needs.

Enter the "Thin Web": a unique interface instantly generated by AI agents, tailored specifically for users.

Imagine a shopping experience like a private consultation, a game that adjusts in real-time to a player's playstyle, and a social app that shows a connection or community based on a deeper signal of intent.

The entrepreneurs building these human-centered layers on top of the proxy infrastructure will shape the emotions and social structures of the new era.

The infrastructure behind the agency

The operation of agents requires resources: computation, storage, bandwidth, and identity. The bottleneck of centralization lies in its inability to scale and gain trust. This is where DePIN comes into play:

• Distributed computing for agent training and inference.
• Decentralized storage for proxy memory and data persistence.
• A ubiquitous and flexible connection layer used for coordination between agents.

Building APIs, smart contracts, and dApps allows agents to autonomously and securely access decentralized infrastructure, which represents a vast open design space. Smart entrepreneurs have already begun to take action.

These aspects together form a new digital backbone, the invisible engine room of the agency economy. Building this stack is not only a technical challenge but also a once-in-a-decade opportunity to lay the foundation for the future network and define a new era of life.

What is the next step in agent innovation?

The full potential of AI agents depends on the continuous enhancement of their core capabilities.

Advancements in learning paradigms such as Reinforcement Learning ### RL ( and Retrieval-Augmented Generation ) RAG ( will drive this evolution, as these advancements can improve decision-making, situational awareness, and reasoning abilities. As agents begin to collaborate to solve complex problems, secure and efficient inter-agent communication and coordination protocols will also be required, thus promoting the rise of complex multi-agent systems.

But innovation cannot happen in isolation. Addressing foundational challenges will open up new opportunities comprehensively.

First, it is essential to build the digital identity and reputation system of agents from scratch to ensure accountability and establish trust. As agents gradually integrate into various areas from personal finance to corporate operations, a clear governance framework is crucial to prevent abuse and protect users.

At the same time, breakthroughs in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and secure communication protocols are crucial for delegating sensitive tasks without leaking user data.

The future of agency innovation requires not only intelligence but also a significant amount of infrastructure and trust. Those who build the tools, systems, and standards for this emerging layer will not only shape the future of AI but also influence all aspects of future living.

Related reading: Reviewing recent product optimizations and technological innovations of AI Agents, can six popular projects break through after their market values drop by over ninety percent?