How many AI Agents will serve you?
Jeremiah Owyang
Venture Capital Investor at Blitzscaling Ventures | Llama Lounge event host & Conference Speaker | Works in an Airstream | CrossFit
Thousands? Several? One to rule them all? My answer is...
I’ve recently been speaking in Tokyo, Dubai, Silicon Valley and remotely from my Tiny Airstream Studios, about AI Agents and how they are going to change the internet, business, society, and us.
I love to engage and ask the audience, “In two years, how many AI agents will serve you?†I pause and listen as the responses vary widely.?It’s a philosophical question, as the answer depends on each person, culture, and even government regulations on big tech.
- How big tech often answers:?Tech giants will have you believe you’ll only use their “superagent†(a single AI agent), but given the number of competing tech giants, that’s an unlikely scenario.
- How startup founders often answers:?Startup CEOs working on AI agents often suggest you’ll use thousands, which is plausible—execution agents will complete tasks as requested by your primary interface agent.
So what’s my answer: "How many AI agents will serve us in 2 years??
- The number of agents you’ll have is equal to the number of email accounts you currently use. Today, most people have around three email accounts: one personal, one as a catch-all, and one issued by their employer. I predict you’ll have at least three AI agents serving you in the same way.
- As many as you can afford. AI agents will emerge under two primary business models: free AI agents, likely aligned with tech giants, and premium AI agents that require a subscription or charge per successful action. If you’re not paying for the agent, then you’re serving the agent.
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So that’s my answer. Now, what’s yours? Write back: In two years, how many AI agents will you have working for you?
Above: I was the kickoff speaker at the Agentic AI Pitch & Demo Night in downtown SF at Digital Garage to present the 2025 AI Agent Ecosystem. Thank you FetchAI Innovation Lab (Sana Wajid), hosted by Aiffy (Steven Echtman) & owow (Gangesh Pathak), with TheAgentic. Shout out to Kevin Mei for the photo.
Serial Entrepreneur | Building AI Interviewers, Scalable SaaS & Frictionless Voice Tech for the Modern Enterprise
3 天å‰Loved this. We’ve gone from “Google it†to “Let me ask ChatGPT†to “Let my AI handle that†in just about 12-18 months? If this pace keeps up, are we heading to a world where we need a password manager just for our agents? I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s eventually an agent to manage our agents ??
CEO, Transparent Path. AI pioneer (1996) applying ethical prescriptive, predictive, and agentic AI to real-world business issues.
1 周Keep in mind we’re in an enthusiast bubble. In the face of accelerating complexity, most people will choose the simplest option possible. Even the idea of “100 agents working for you†seems extremely unlikely. How many direct reports can most execs manage? 5, maybe 6 at best? Time and focus are limited. You’d need an agentic subordinate to manage the others.
Head of Marketing @ TOC | Early-Stage Technology | AI Founder | Co-creator of my children | 1K+ Endorsements
2 周Thats 2x now you've really got me thinking - last was your agent 2 agent interactions... fascinating - now this. I reckon that it might be closer to the number of feeds you have beyond your email accounts - my music potentially, social feeds like LinkedIn or YouTube. Even my Rocket account or my Toyota Rav4 - Messages and WhatsApp messages from my kids/family might be another one or two. Great thought experiment. TY!
Google Cloud GTM | Strategy & Ops | Business Transformation | Growing orgs, products and people @ Cloud
2 周Great post and definitely something I've also been thinking a lot about recently. I imagine there will be a LLM aggregator (remember Trillian in the early 00's for chat apps?!) which will enable users to plug 'n play AI Agents as needed based on domain expertise, cost etc.
The HR AI Guy | Using AI to Improve Talent Acquisition & HR without losing the human touch | Recruitment Marketing | Executive Search | AI Consultant | Speaker
2 周Comparing them to email accounts is interesting. Thinking of all the tools under my outlook account. Agents with sub-agents(folders)? It will be interesting.