The agent economy: websites as service providers for AI

From visitors to agents: a new reality

The internet is on the verge of a fundamental shift. For years, websites were designed for human visitors: people who open pages, read content, fill in forms and make purchases. In the emerging agent economy, an entirely new type of visitor is appearing: the AI agent. These agents act on behalf of human users, comparing offers, booking services, placing orders and even negotiating prices.

This is not science fiction. Major technology companies are investing billions in agent infrastructure. OpenAI is building agent capabilities into ChatGPT. Google is integrating Gemini agents into its ecosystem. Anthropic is developing Claude with tool use and autonomous task execution. Apple is integrating AI agents into Siri and the operating system. The transition from "AI that provides information" to "AI that performs tasks" has already begun.

This shift is the logical next step after what we describe in our article about AEO and why it matters. Where AEO focuses on being cited by AI models, the agent economy goes one step further: your website becomes a service provider that AI agents can programmatically access.

How AI agents use websites

AI agents interact with websites in a fundamentally different way than human visitors. They do not read visual layouts and do not click through menus. Instead, they communicate via structured interfaces.

• APIs and endpoints: agents make HTTP requests to defined endpoints to retrieve data or execute actions.
• Schema.org markup: agents read structured data to understand product information, prices, availability and services.
• MCP (Model Context Protocol): an emerging protocol that allows AI models to directly access tools and data sources on websites.
• A2A (Agent-to-Agent): protocols that allow agents from different providers to communicate with each other to coordinate complex tasks.
• llms.txt: a file that tells AI models what the website offers and how they can interact with it.

The MCP protocol plays a crucial role in this development. In our article about MCP servers and AI agents, we explain how this protocol works and how you can prepare your website for agent traffic.

The value chain of the agent economy

In the agent economy, a new value chain emerges that differs from the traditional web ecosystem. Understanding how this chain works is essential for positioning your website.

1. The user gives an instruction to the AI agent, for example "Book a restaurant for two people Friday evening in Amsterdam, Italian, budget up to 80 euros."
2. The agent searches available sources: websites with structured restaurant data, reservation platforms with APIs, review sites with ratings.
3. The agent compares options based on the user's criteria, including price, location, ratings and availability.
4. The agent presents a selection to the user or directly makes the reservation if the user has authorized it.
5. The transaction is completed via the API or platform of the chosen restaurant.

In this chain, the website that can be most easily and reliably accessed by agents wins. A restaurant with a reservation API and structured menu data has an enormous advantage over a restaurant that only has a PDF menu on its website.

Preparing your website for the agent economy

Preparing your website for agent traffic requires a shift in thinking. Instead of designing only for human eyes, you must also design for machine interaction.

Structured data as foundation

The absolute foundation is comprehensive Schema.org markup. Agents use this structured data to understand your offerings without visual interpretation. Product schema, Service schema, LocalBusiness schema, Event schema and Offer schema are the building blocks through which agents read your website.

In our article about Schema.org markup, we describe the most important schema types and how to implement them. For the agent economy, it is crucial to implement not just the basics but also advanced properties like OpeningHoursSpecification, priceRange and areaServed.

APIs and programmatic access

Websites that want to thrive in the agent economy must provide programmatic access. This can range from simple JSON endpoints that deliver product data to full RESTful APIs through which agents can execute transactions.

# Example: simple product API for AI agents
# GET /api/v1/products?category=cleaning&eco=true

{
  "products": [
    {
      "id": "eco-spray-001",
      "name": "Ecological all-purpose cleaner",
      "price": 8.95,
      "currency": "EUR",
      "inStock": true,
      "ecoLabel": "EU Ecolabel",
      "rating": 4.6,
      "reviewCount": 234
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "totalPages": 5,
    "totalProducts": 47
  }
}

Authentication and trust

In a world where AI agents act on behalf of users, authentication and trust become extra important. Agents must be able to prove they are acting on behalf of a specific user, and websites must be able to verify that an agent is trustworthy.

Protocols like Web Bot Auth and OAuth discovery play an increasing role in this. The A2A protocol provides standards for agent authentication and authorization that make this trust chain possible.

Business models in the agent economy

The agent economy creates new business models and transforms existing ones.

• Agent-friendly marketplaces: platforms that make it easy for agents to compare and order products and services will have a competitive advantage.
• API-as-a-service: companies that make their services available through well-documented APIs unlock a new sales channel that is accessible to agents 24/7.
• Agent commission models: similar to affiliate marketing, but for AI agents that facilitate transactions.
• Data-as-product: websites that offer rich, structured data become more valuable as more agents consume this data.
• Trust certification: services that certify the reliability and quality of websites for agent interaction.

The risks and challenges

The agent economy also brings risks and challenges that you need to understand.

First, there is the risk of disintermediation. If AI agents execute transactions directly, the role of your website may shift from a destination to a background service. The agent presents the result to the user, not your website. This requires rethinking where you add value.

Second, there is the risk of price and condition transparency. Agents compare rapidly and objectively. A competitive advantage based on information asymmetry disappears when agents can compare all providers in milliseconds.

Third, there is the risk of dependency on agent platforms. If the majority of your transactions go through AI agents, you become dependent on the platforms that offer these agents and on their algorithms that determine which websites are recommended.

The agent economy reverses the traditional web relationship. Instead of attracting visitors to your website, you must bring your services to the agents that act on behalf of those visitors.

Key takeaways

• The agent economy introduces AI agents as a new type of website visitor that performs tasks and completes transactions on behalf of users.
• Websites must facilitate machine interaction alongside human visitors through structured data, APIs and protocols like MCP and A2A.
• The value chain shifts: the website that can be most easily accessed by agents wins the transaction.
• New business models emerge around agent-friendly services, API-as-a-service and agent commission structures.
• Early investment in agent compatibility builds a competitive advantage that is difficult for later followers to catch up with.

Frequently asked questions

The websites that start building agent compatibility today are the service providers of tomorrow. The agent economy rewards preparation, not reaction.