--- schema: 1 type: term title: '**agentic web**' description: >- **Agentic web** — in this material, the emerging ecosystem in which **AI agents** take action on a user's behalf by connecting to the internet's existing websites, APIs, and tools through shared, open protocols. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott analogizes **MCP** to HTTP and Anthropic's **NLWeb** to HTML as the protocol layers this web is being built on. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268] [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327] canonical: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/agentic-web-836750487955' markdown: >- https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/agentic-web-836750487955.md llms: null parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt' channel: everyinc updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z' language: null children: [] --- # \*\*agentic web\*\* Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/agentic-web-836750487955 Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt) ## Definition **Agentic web** — in this material, the emerging ecosystem in which **AI agents** take action on a user's behalf by connecting to the internet's existing websites, APIs, and tools through shared, open protocols. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott analogizes **MCP** to HTTP and Anthropic's **NLWeb** to HTML as the protocol layers this web is being built on. [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@268] [^eea0a522-b6b8-5472-bf62-08b0a42ab8a3@326] [^385ed583-4107-5c5a-b47a-33e1dde27a3b@327] <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>