<Section title="How the term is used in this material">## How the term is used in this materialIn these conversations, agentic web names the ecosystem Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott believes is taking shape: an internet where AI agents act on your behalf — using tools, changing systems, and consulting rich information sources — by plumbing into the websites and APIs that already exist. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268]It is deliberately a web-level vision, not a single-agent vision. Scott compares it to the web's own stack:<MomentLink seconds="326"/><MomentLink seconds="327"/>- MCP plays the role that HTTP plays on the internet — the protocol agents use to reach tools and APIs. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327]- Anthropic's NLWeb aims to be the moral equivalent of HTML — simple, composable, and open, layered on top so the protocols reach ubiquity together. [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327]<Quote moment="327">MCP plays the role in the agentic web that HTTP plays on the internet.</Quote> [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326]### Why a web at all?Because agents are only useful when they can take action, Scott argues they need an ecosystem that looks like the internet itself, where existing websites and APIs get plumbed through so agents can talk to them. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268] Alex Rattray frames the substrate the same way: APIs are the dendrites of the internet — the connection points where programs, like neurons, exchange information. [^913c216d-5ccb-51d9-8f42-8feb7c017d9d@334]The term also carries economic weight in this material. Emily Glassberg Sands observes that the internet was built assuming a person is the main actor; the agentic web is what emerges as agents become a new class of internet actor, forcing discovery, payments, identity, and fraud defenses to be rethought layer by layer. [^90e39a1e-87e8-5b3f-b9f2-f003e83fd62b@96]</Section><Section title="How to keep the term straight">## How to keep the term straight- The agentic web is the destination: an interconnected agent ecosystem built on open, shared protocols rather than isolated agents and proprietary integrations. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327]- MCP and NLWeb are the building materials Scott names for it — the HTTP and HTML analogues. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327]- Underneath the analogy sit unresolved questions the conversations revisit — security (agent identities, entitlements, permissions), [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@639] and whether openness and robustness conflict (Scott calls that possibly a false dichotomy). [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@763]</Section><KeyPoints>- Agentic web = an internet-shaped ecosystem where AI agents take action on your behalf by connecting to existing websites, APIs, and tools through open protocols. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268]- Kevin Scott's analogy: MCP is its HTTP; Anthropic's NLWeb aims to be its HTML. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327]- Agents as a new class of internet actor are the reason the web's economic layers — payments, identity, fraud — need rebuilding. [^90e39a1e-87e8-5b3f-b9f2-f003e83fd62b@96]</KeyPoints>