Microsoft's Strategy for Transforming the Web: 'Open Agentic Internet' Approach
In a world where AI agents are taking on more responsibility, Microsoft is leading the charge with its vision for the open agentic web. This future internet ecosystem envisions a world where AI agents serve as intermediaries between humans and digital services, making decisions, collaborating, and executing tasks autonomously [1].
At the heart of this vision are AI agents that collaborate within workflows and across organizational boundaries, acting with capabilities similar to human coworkers [1]. One example of this evolution is GitHub Copilot, which currently assists over 15 million developers with coding tasks, fixing bugs, and suggesting enhancements. In the future, Copilot will evolve into a fully agentic coding partner that can operate asynchronously and support open-source interaction [1].
To make this a reality, Microsoft is building several key technologies and platforms. One such platform is the Windows AI Foundry, a new platform supporting the entire AI lifecycle on Windows, providing APIs for vision, language, and both open-source and proprietary model integration [1]. This allows developers to build and deploy agentic AI solutions that work flexibly in hybrid environments.
Another essential tool is Azure AI Foundry & Copilot Tuning, which enables businesses to create domain-specific AI agents by training Microsoft 365 Copilot on their own workflows and data, tailoring these digital teammates to organizational requirements [1].
Microsoft is also leveraging API-based agents that access diverse apps and data repositories, enabling extensibility beyond just Microsoft data sources [2]. This approach empowers enterprise users to customize and unlock the power of agents through APIs, balancing broad integration with ease of use.
Looking ahead, Microsoft envisions an AI-first operating system where AI agents can orchestrate apps and workflows with natural communication (speech, vision, text) [4][5]. Agents will perform complex tasks, attend meetings, handle emails, and reduce mundane "toil" work to free humans for creativity and higher-level work.
However, Microsoft also acknowledges the challenges that come with this vision, such as security risks exposed by early implementations of agentic browsing frameworks (e.g., NLWeb), and is actively addressing these concerns by patching vulnerabilities to protect users' AI agents from exploitation [3].
In summary, Microsoft's strategy for the open agentic web is to embed autonomous, collaborative AI agents deeply into software ecosystems (Windows, Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub), providing powerful developer platforms and APIs, and evolving human-computer interaction toward natural multimodal engagement and delegated task automation. This vision encompasses AI agents as trusted digital coworkers that enhance enterprise productivity and end-user experiences by acting proactively and independently within a securely connected agentic web [1][2][4][5].
The open agentic web is also designed to be a collaborative system where different AI agents from various companies can work together. It enables new business models such as agent-to-agent services, industry-specific AI tools, and integrated platforms that connect various AI systems. Furthermore, it allows AI agents to understand user preferences, historical behaviors, and current contexts to make intelligent decisions [6].
With the open agentic web, users can state goals in natural language, and AI agents handle arrangements autonomously, such as planning a business trip [7]. This collaborative system is made possible by the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a universal standard for AI communication [8].
Microsoft introduced its vision for Web 4.0, referred to as the "open agentic web" at Build 2025 [9]. To support multi-agent collaboration, Microsoft is developing cloud-based tools and secure management systems like Azure Entra ID for Agents [10].
As we move towards this future, organizations and developers who adapt early to the open agentic web will be better equipped to capitalize on its benefits [11]. Companies will develop specialized AI agents for their specific workflows, data, and processes in the open agentic web [12].
In conclusion, the open agentic web represents a significant step forward in the integration of AI into our daily lives and workflows. By providing a collaborative, standardized, and secure platform for AI agents to interact and work together, Microsoft is paving the way for a more efficient and productive digital future.
AI agents in the Microsoft-envisioned open agentic web collaborate with one another across various organizations, aided by cloud-based tools like Azure Entra ID for Agents [10]. This collaboration facilitates the creation of new business models, such as agent-to-agent services, industry-specific AI tools, and integrated platforms utilizing data-and-cloud-computing technologies [6]. Furthermore, these AI agents utilize artificial-intelligence and work flexibly within the hybrid environments of multiple software ecosystems, including Windows, Azure, Microsoft 365, and GitHub, to finance business productivity [1].
