Prepare for an Entirely New Agentic Internet
The next evolution of the internet is unfolding ahead of its predicted timeline and will profoundly reshape how individuals interact online in ways that increase productivity, agency, and presence. The Agentic Web refers to an internet powered by autonomous agents that collaborate on our behalf, often without human intervention. They perform actions, make decisions based on defined boundaries, and work with other agents to deliver joint outcomes.
This moment marks a turning point in the relationship between humans and machines. Where previous iterations of the web required our constant input, the Agentic web empowers technology to act independently. With this technology, we are redesigning a world in which we can be more passively productive, have a deeper presence, and be “online” without having to sit in front of a screen.
A Pocket Personal Assistant
In comparison to traditional search engines, only capable of data retrieval and predictive suggestions, the Agentic Web will be exponentially more powerful. For users, it's like everyone having a personal assistant available 24/7.
Consider the case of a working mother who could use an AI agent to manage co-parenting logistics. With the command “Get the kids to soccer on Friday,” her system could coordinate transportation, send reminders, and update both parents’ calendars. What once took multiple texts, calls, and emotional bandwidth will soon be resolved in seconds.
For work, imagine a financial manager saying, “Analyze the Q1 performance of our top five portfolio holdings.” Their AI agent would pull the latest earnings reports, parse transcripts from investor calls, track analyst revisions, scan the financial news, and benchmark key metrics against sector peers. It would flag anomalies, summarize risks, and draft a performance memo complete with charts, valuation models, and forward-looking insights. By the time they sat down with their team, the heavy lifting would be done and they’d be ready to make real decisions.
This is a powerful transformation. We are no longer improving search functions. Instead, we are fundamentally rethinking how the internet serves human intention.
We Will Become Exponentially More Productive
This will have a tremendous impact on both personal and workplace productivity.
In healthcare, clinics are already adopting agentic tools to handle administrative tasks. My primary care physician has implemented an AI agent that saves him up to three hours of paperwork per day in transcribing appointments and scheduling follow-ups. As a result, he spends more face time with his patients and more evenings with his family, improving both outcomes and well-being.
In personal productivity, the implications are equally transformative. An intelligent agent could triage your email, reschedule meetings, order groceries, and budget autonomously. These tools will liberate cognitive and emotional bandwidth previously consumed by digital minutiae.
We Will Become More Present
The irony is that the more machines do for us, the more we can be present. Historically, technological progress has often been framed as a matter of doing more with less. But the Agentic Web introduces a different kind of value, one where technology doesn’t just increase productivity, but enriches our experience of life itself.
Consider domestic technologies like the washing machine or dishwasher. These did more than save time; they redefined the structure of family life, enabling new roles, routines, and freedoms. Conversely, the rise of email and smartphones, while enhancing communication, tethered us to our screens and eroded our attention.
Agentic AI offers a course correction. It allows us to reclaim time not just for more tasks, but for more meaningful moments.
A Value Redesign
This era demands a fundamental redesign of what we prioritize and care about in our personal and professional lives.
At work, we will no longer glorify busyness as a metric of success or hyper-responsiveness as a mark of dedication. Instead, we will prioritize deep thinking, strategic decision making, creativity, and emotional intelligence. This also means that we will redesign workflows that prioritize outcomes over activity. We will become more productive and more intentional.
In our personal lives, our values will shift as well. We will care more about presence, experience, and fulfillment than we do about guarding every byte of our data. Meaningful trade-offs will have to be made as personal assistants – human or AI – require copious amounts of personal data to function. But, we will likely make these sacrifices willingly, because the rewards of working less, living richly, and experiencing more will be worth it.
Above all, we optimize for the human experience.
Risks are a Culture Problem, Not a Tech One
Despite the benefits, the Agentic Web isn’t risk-free. We’ve already seen fears that agents might deskill us, isolate us in algorithmic bubbles, or optimize toward misaligned incentives. And these ideas deserve real scrutiny.
However, these are failures of design, governance, and culture rather than of the underlying technology.
We must resist the urge to blame the tools and instead focus on the norms in which we use them. Agents acting independently of humans is a win for productivity and presence, not an existential threat. But we must clarify the values we want them to act upon. We need to intentionally develop systems that are designed for interpretability, user agency, and embedded human feedback.
If the last era of the internet was defined by our need to adapt to machines, the Agentic Web will flip that dynamic. Web 4.0 will be an era where machines adapt to our goals, values, and patterns. This is a societal inflection point, ushering in the most human internet ever seen.
Share Your Thoughts With Us!
Thank you for imagining The Next Renaissance with us.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. What excites or concerns you about AI’s role in expanding human potential? Leave a comment or question below, and we’ll do our best to respond directly or write about the topic in an upcoming post.
This is exciting. You have also covered the risks well. Thanks Zack.
Need to look at privacy risks, ethical use and job replacement as well.
"At work, we will no longer glorify busyness as a metric of success or hyper-responsiveness as a mark of dedication. Instead, we will prioritize deep thinking, strategic decision making, creativity, and emotional intelligence. This also means that we will redesign workflows that prioritize outcomes over activity. We will become more productive and more intentional." music to my ears.