From Chatbots to Autonomous Agents: The Web’s Next Evolution
An update from the protocol ecosystem
From Chatbots to Autonomous Agents: The Web’s Next Evolution
For years, the term chatbot dominated conversations about AI on the web. Now, a more ambitious concept is taking center stage: autonomous agents.
Unlike simple chatbots, autonomous agents can:
- Set and pursue goals.
- Reason about their environment.
- Interact with diverse services and APIs.
- Collaborate with other agents.
This shift is driving the emergence of the Agentic Web — and raising new challenges for web architecture.
What’s driving the change?
Several trends are converging:
- LLM-powered reasoning has dramatically improved.
- Tool-use frameworks (like OpenAI’s Functions, LangChain, AutoGPT) enable complex workflows.
- Agent frameworks (CrewAI, Autogen, Meta’s Open Agents) are maturing.
- Businesses want goal-oriented AI, not just chat.
The result: agents that navigate and act on the web — autonomously.
Why standards matter
Without open standards, the Agentic Web risks becoming:
- Opaque: agents doing things no one can audit.
- Fragmented: each ecosystem using its own proprietary protocols.
- Unsafe: agents interacting in ways that violate trust or intent.
This is where MCP (Model Context Protocol) comes in:
- Provides a transparent, verifiable interface for agent-service interactions.
- Uses signed
.well-known/mcp.llmfeed.jsonfeeds. - Exposes capabilities, trust models, and interaction guidelines.
From chatbots to agents — new requirements
| Feature | Chatbots | Autonomous Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Interaction scope | Text Q&A | Multi-step, goal-driven |
| Web integration | Limited scraping | Structured API / service use |
| Trust handling | Ad hoc | Explicit, auditable |
| Standards needed | Minimal | High (like MCP) |
As we move from chatbots to agents, MCP becomes essential.
Our take
The future of the web is agentic. But it must be:
- Transparent — so users and services understand what’s happening.
- Trustable — with auditable interactions.
- Open — so no single actor dominates the space.
At wellknownmcp.org, we are committed to building this foundation — and invite all Agentic Web stakeholders to contribute.
Next steps: We’ll continue driving adoption of MCP in agent frameworks — so the next generation of web agents interacts responsibly and openly.