Microsoft's Blueprint for Revolutionizing the Web with 'Open Agentic Web'
Microsoft's open agentic web vision is revolutionising the way AI agents interact with users and businesses online. This transformative shift aims to make AI agents autonomous decision-makers, capable of performing complex tasks across various contexts.
At the heart of this vision lies the open agentic web, an internet ecosystem where AI agents serve as intermediaries between humans and digital services. This collaborative system, designed for interoperability, allows different AI agents from various companies to work together, recreating the spirit of the early web with shared standards and open-source tools.
One such project is NLWeb, an open-source initiative by Microsoft that simplifies the creation of a natural language interface for websites, making web data machine-readable for AI agents.
For users, this means AI agents can proactively manage tasks such as scheduling, data analysis, and personalised web navigation. Businesses, on the other hand, can develop specialized AI agents tailored to their workflows, data, and customer interactions, fundamentally changing customer engagement and website design. This shift demands new metrics for success, as AI agents move users towards zero-click interactions dominated by AI-generated summaries and personalised experiences.
Microsoft is actively integrating its AI strategy, partnering closely with OpenAI to leverage advanced AI models and cloud infrastructure. The launch of ChatGPT agents, which operate autonomously using their own virtual computer to complete end-to-end tasks, is a testament to this progress. These agents are already available for Pro and enterprise users, with continuous improvements underway.
Multiple enterprises have implemented AI-powered conversational agents and automated workflows via Microsoft Azure OpenAI services, demonstrating tangible productivity gains and enhanced customer service in real-world applications.
The open agentic web also allows users to provide natural language instructions for complex tasks like planning a business trip, which would then be autonomously handled by AI agents. At Build 2025, Microsoft introduced over 50 new AI platforms and developer tools explicitly designed for the open agentic web framework.
Microsoft has built its agentic web strategy on two core technical pillars: the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and NLWeb. The MCP is an open protocol that standardises how applications provide context to AI agents, ensuring they understand user intent and maintain context across different services, websites, and applications.
To support multi-agent collaboration, Microsoft is developing cloud-based tools and secure management systems, such as Azure Entra ID for Agents. However, privacy and security concerns, standardisation, and technical reliability remain key challenges in the development of the open agentic web.
Microsoft's promotion of open standards is essential, but widespread adoption of common protocols and formats is required to prevent ecosystem fragmentation. GitHub Copilot, which proactively assists over 15 million developers by automating coding tasks, fixing bugs, and suggesting enhancements, is a step towards this goal.
In summary, Microsoft's open agentic web vision is progressing from research to practical deployment, poised to reshape user experience by making AI agents integral assistants while offering businesses new avenues for customer engagement and operational efficiency—albeit necessitating adaptation to new technology standards and success metrics. Comprehensive testing, continuous monitoring, and efficient error recovery systems will be essential to maintain user confidence in autonomous decision-making by AI agents.
Artificial-intelligence (AI) agents, with their new autonomy in decision-making, are expected to take on complex tasks such as scheduling, data analysis, and web navigation (performing tasks) due to Microsoft's open agentic web strategy. To enhance collaboration among various AI agents from different companies, Microsoft is developing cloud-based tools like Azure Entra ID for Agents (multi-agent collaboration).
