# AI agents need incentives that keep the web open

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-agents-need-incentives-that-keep-the-web-open/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/builders/parag-agrawal/) · Parag Agrawal is founder and CEO of Parallel, former CEO of Twitter. · Founded Parallel Web Systems, which builds agentic web search for AI agents; former Twitter CEO.
- Host: [Joubin Mirzadegan](https://realalpha.app/people/joubin-mirzadegan/) · Partner, Kleiner Perkins · Took Palo Alto Networks' cloud business from $2M to $50M+ ARR in a year.
- Show: Grit
- Episode: [Ex-Twitter CEO on Why AI Needs a New Internet | Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/), Jul 27, 2026
- Moment: 35:23 to 39:11 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-agents-need-incentives-that-keep-the-web-open/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2123

## Quote

> “the whole contract, **the whole bargain of the open web**, is that people put content out in the open because there are amazing ways of getting distribution, driving, monetization, selling goods.”
> — [Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/builders/parag-agrawal/) at [37:02](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2222) · Grit

## Takeaways

1. Agents may use the web far more than people do.
2. Existing web business models may not survive that shift.
3. Rewarding quality content can keep the web open.

## About this segment

Parag Agrawal argues that agents will use the web at vastly greater scale, disrupting the business models that fund open content. Parallel aims to reward the people who create it.

From “Ex-Twitter CEO on Why AI Needs a New Internet | Parag Agrawal”, Jul 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/)

## Transcript

From the transcript Grit publishes with the episode.

[35:30](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2130) are great at what they do and actually believe in the mission to join us. Can you talk about the mission? Why did you start the company? What are you trying to do? Yeah, we started because I got obsessed with this notion that I wrote down one day, which is like, agents and AI's will just use the web a lot more than humans ever have. And I wrote down a number which is, like 1000 x, and this is like two and a half years ago, we wrote down this random number 1000 x more than humans ever have. And I said, like, I have built systems before at 1000 x the scale, none of no system works and no system is designed for it from an architecture perspective. From infrastructure perspective. I also wrote down that new business models will be needed for how agents use the web. The all the business models that have existed on the web for and have

[36:20](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2180) been built and evolved for like last three decades, let's call it, are about to evolve and change completely. And that seems like an opportunity. And it seems like an opportunity that is like really close to me because like the open web is a like for where I grew up and how I grew up. Open web is like this generational change in the world that I have experienced and lived through, and now there's going to be like a second birth of what the future of the open web is. A parallel web. A parallel web, if you may, that came to us later, by the way, not in the founding moment. Uh, the so, so this notion of like this observation that the business model will change. And like there is this existential threat, right? That the whole contract, the whole bargain of the open web, is that people put content out in the open because there are amazing ways

[37:22](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2242) of getting distribution, driving, monetization, selling goods. There are many incentive systems built in which keep things open. Now, the risk is, if we don't innovate enough that the web starts closing up and we're starting to see that already, right. And so there is some missing incentive alignment today in terms of agents using the web and people putting content out on the open web that needs solving. Now, the good news is, if agents are going to use the web 1000 x more, and I actually think 1000 x, did we under shoot? I'm already using the web with this token maxing. Uh, 1000 x more.

[38:09](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=2289) I think it's going to be way more than 1000 x. That's not work. That is just a pure waste. I actually think we will generate real value, satisfaction, all kinds of things as a result of these tokens over time. And if we do that, there is enough value generated so that if we just figure out how to incentivize being open, how to reward high quality, unique, differentiated content that we get to keep the web open and prospering and becoming like a whole new thing, like we can't imagine. And so that's the core mission of the business, to keep the web open, to create incentive alignment between all of the plenty we will create with agents having access to more high quality information, and the people who curate create, produce that information.