Agents will force businesses to choose how they participate

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 29:01

   Demis Hassabis yesterday. He was on stage with Sergey Brin. And Alex Kantrowitz asked him, what does a web look like in 10 years? And Demis said, I don't know that an agent-first web looks anything like the web that we have today. I don't know that we have to render web pages for agents the way that we have to see them. That kind of implies that the web will turn into a series of databases for various agents to go and ask questions to and then return those answers. And I have been thinking about this in the context of services like Uber and DoorDash and Airbnb, why would they want to participate in that and be abstracted away for agents to use the services they've spent a lot of time and money building?

2. 29:38

   Two things, though. First, there's a lot to unpack. It's a fascinating topic. The web is a series of databases, et cetera. We build a UI on top of it for all of us to consume. This is exactly what I wanted, is the web is a series of databases. It is. But I listened to the Demis Sergei conversation yesterday. I enjoyed it. I think he's saying for an agent-first web, for a web which is interacting with agents, you would think about how to make that process more efficient.

3. 30:05

   Today, you're running a restaurant. People are coming, dining, and eating, and people are ordering takeout and delivery. Obviously, for you to service that takeout, you would think about it different than all the tables and the clothing and the furniture. But both are important to you. You could be a restaurant which decides, I'm not going to participate in the takeout business. I'm only going to focus on the dining experience.

4. 30:31

   You're going to have some people vice versa. I'm going to say, I'm going to go all in on this and run a different experience. To your question on agents, right, I think of agents as a new powerful format. I do think it'll happen in enterprises faster than consumer. Because in the context of an enterprise, you have a CIO who's able to go and say, I really don't know why these two things don't talk to each other.

5. 30:54

   Yeah. I'm not going to buy more of this unless you interoperate with this. I think partly why you see on the enterprise side a lot more authentic experiences. On the consumer side, I think what you're saying is a good point, right? People have to think about and say, what is the value for me to participate in this world? And it could come in many ways. It could be because I participate in it and overall my business grows, right?

6. 31:19

   Some people may feel that it's disintermediating, right? And like it doesn't make sense. All of that can happen. But users may vote with their feet, right? Like, you know, you may find some people are supporting the agentic experience and your life is better because of it. And so you're going to have all these dynamics and like, you know, and I think they're going to try and find an equilibrium somewhere.

7. 31:42

   That's how everything evolves. Yeah. I mean, I think the idea that the web is a series of databases and we change the internet. First of all, this is like the most decoder conversation that we've ever had. I'm very happy with it. But, you know, I had Dara from Uber on the show. I asked him this question from his perspective. And his answer attracts yours broadly. He said, first, we'll do it because it's cool.

8. 31:59

   And we'll see if there's value there. And if there is, you know, he's going to charge a big fee for the agent to come and use Uber. Because losing the customer for him, losing the ability to upsell or sell a subscription, none of that is great, right? It's the same is true for Airbnb. I keep calling it the DoorDash problem. Like DoorDash should not be a dumb pipe for sandwiches, right? They're trying to actually run a business and they want the customer relationship.

9. 32:24

   And so if the agents are going across the web and they're looking at all these databases and saying, okay, this is where I get food from and this is where I get cars from and this is where I book. I think the demo was booking a vacation home in Spanish, right? And I'm going to connect you to that agent, that travel agent. Is it just going to be tolls that everyone pays to let the agents work? Because the price, I still don't, the CIO gets to just spend money to solve the problem.

10. 32:49

    He says, I want this capability from you. I'm just going to pay you to do it. The market, the consumer market doesn't have that capability, right? All kinds of models may emerge, right? I can literally see 20 different ways this could work. Consumers could pay a subscription for agents and the agents could rev share back. All right. So, you know, so that is a CIO like use case you're talking about.

11. 33:11

    That's possible. We can't rule that out. I don't think we should underestimate people may actually see more value participating in it. You know, it's tough to predict. But I do think over time, like, if you're removing friction and improving user experience, you know, it's tough to bet against those in the long run, right? And so, I think, you know, I think if in general you're lowering friction for it, you know, and people are enjoying using it, somebody is going to want to participate in it and grow their business.

12. 33:42

    Yeah. Right? And like, would brands want to be in retailers? Why don't they sell directly today? Yeah. Why won't they do that? I don't know why. Because retailers provide value in the middle. Why do merchants take credit cards? Right. Like, why? I'm just saying. So, like, there are many parts. And you find equilibrium because merchants take credit cards because they see more business as part of taking credit cards than not.

13. 34:07

    Right. And it justifies the increased cost of taking credit cards. It may not be the perfect analogy, but I think there are all these kinds of effects going around. But what you're saying is true that, you know, some of this will slow progress in agents just because we all are excited about A2A and MCP. And we think, no, like some of it will slow progress, but I think it'll be it'll be very dynamic.

14. 34:29

    There's other pressures on Google. There's antitrust pressures.