Decidr

Imagine a world where your business operates autonomously, orchestrating decisions, negotiating deals and innovating relentlessly — all without your constant intervention. This isn’t some distant dream — it’s the inevitable reality of the agentic web, a new network poised to reshape the very fabric of how we work, create and succeed.

Large language models (LLMs) are proliferating at breakneck speed, rapidly becoming more intelligent and capable of solving increasingly complex problems. Just as electricity powered the manufacturing and industrial revolutions, driving exponential gains in productivity, intelligence on demand is set to revolutionise the knowledge work economy.

In other words, LLMs are not only automating routine tasks, they’re unlocking new ways to create, strategise and innovate.

This transformation mirrors other game changing moments in history, when steam power, electricity and the internet reshaped how the world worked.

Today, generative AI is opening the door to the next big leap. By weaving intelligence naturally into workflows, it’s breaking down traditional boundaries and creating space for humans and AI to work together with unmatched efficiency and creativity.

At the heart of this transformation is the agentic web — a new layer of the internet designed for AI-first systems.

This evolution is not just a technological progression, it’s a philosophical shift. Businesses are moving from tools designed to assist human efforts to systems that act as intelligent partners, guided by human intention but autonomous in how they operate.

This incredible shift has unfolded across three distinct eras, each building on the last, leading us to a fully interconnected agentic economy that has already begun to redefine how value is created, shared and scaled.

The internet: A layered legacy of innovation

To understand the agentic web, we need to first appreciate the layered nature of the internet. Each layer has served as a scaffold for the next, enabling exponential leaps in innovation.

The connectivity layer was the first, creating a foundation for global communication. It was followed by the web layer*, which allowed people to share and access information at scale.

The search layer brought order, making the vast expanse of the internet navigable and useful. This layer did more than organise information — it became the foundation for industries ranging from ecommerce to digital advertising. Next, the social layer reshaped human interaction, enabling real time global networking and creating new economies of influence and engagement. Finally, the cloud layer transformed how data is stored and accessed, giving businesses the speed and scale to operate digitally.

Yet, despite their power, these layers have also created challenges: fragmented systems and disconnected silos of SaaS tools and cloud services.

The agentic layer transcends these limitations. By building on the foundations of previous layers, it empowers diverse systems to act autonomously, intelligently navigating complex environments to achieve outcomes.

More than just enhancing human efforts, this new layer reimagines the role of businesses in a connected, intelligent economy.

Era 1: The SaaS-a-fication of AI (aka The Age of Tragedy)

The first era of the agentic web is one of fragmentation and unrealised potential. It mirrors the early days of the internet, when new technologies were often met with skepticism, misuse and resistance.

Schools and universities, for example, bristled at the emergence of Wikipedia, seeing it as a threat to academic integrity. Students were warned against its use, yet over time, its collaborative model proved itself to be extremely helpful. Wikipedia didn’t undermine education, it enhanced it.

Today, a similar pattern is unfolding with generative AI tools. These same educational institutions are divided: some ban its use entirely, fearing it might encourage dishonesty, while others see its potential to personalise learning and expand creative possibilities.

This resistance isn’t new; it’s a familiar response to any truly transformative technology.

In the business world, this era is characterised by AI being confined to narrow, limited roles.

We refer to AI as an “assistant,” confining it to repetitive, humble tasks like drafting emails, summarising documents or processing basic data. This framing shapes how AI is used, relegating it to the sidelines as a tool for efficiency, rather than empowering it as a true collaborator.

The rise of vertical assistants — AI tools designed for specific, isolated tasks — is not just a matter of habit but economic constraints.

Developing AI models capable of high level commercial inference is extraordinarily expensive**. As businesses adopt these vertical AI tools, we’re witnessing the SaaS-a-fication of AI. Much like managing dozens of SaaS subscriptions, companies now juggle a growing collection of isolated AI "buttons," each performing a single task — analysing spreadsheets here, summarising emails there — but they don’t talk to each other.

This siloed approach leads to inefficiency and redundancy, with businesses struggling to extract much value from their AI investments.

Instead of enabling meaningful collaboration, these fragmented systems create a chaotic and disconnected landscape. This entire period is a missed opportunity — a reminder of how underutilised generative AI still is.

The true power of AI lies not in isolated silos but in interconnected systems that can collaborate, learn and act autonomously.

Era 2: The rise of agentic teams

The second era introduces a fundamental shift in how we view and interact with AI.

At the end of 2024, we’re beginning to shake the fear of AI overlords born out of Hollywood and embracing the inhuman nature of AI. Finally, we’re starting to think differently about how to harness its potential.

No longer confined to the role of subservient assistants, AI systems are becoming active collaborators, while humans bring the crucial elements of taste, judgment and intuition.

This is the era of agentic teams: dynamic partnerships where AI works alongside humans, operating not just as tools, but as integral team members with autonomy and agency.

Agentic teams elevate both AI and humans to their highest potential. By leveraging human-in-the-loop (HITL) processes, they combine AI's unparalleled speed, precision and scalability with the creativity, ethical judgment and emotional intelligence that humans can offer.

Together, they achieve outcomes that neither could accomplish alone, blending strengths to tackle complex challenges and innovate with purpose.

For agentic teams to take centre stage, however, we need to consider more than just collaboration — their success needs to be built on a foundation of critical platforms that act as the major nodes of this new layer on the web.

These platforms are distinguished by their immutable records — data that is foundational to business functions and reliably consistent. Examples include accounting platforms that track financial transactions, HR systems that store employee records and payment processors that handle transactions and tax calculations.

Horizontal platforms like Decidr play a central role in this transformation by integrating data seamlessly across an organisation. To achieve this we create “high-context” AI systems, where data from every corner of the business — financial transactions, workflows, customer interactions and market signals — is unified into a cohesive whole. This holistic view enables AI to identify relationships, uncover opportunities and make smarter, more impactful decisions.

By building on these essential nodes, the Decidr platform helps businesses make the most of their data without the expense of complex normalisation. This establishes a foundation for agentic systems that are intelligent, adaptive and capable of working autonomously, all while staying guided by human oversight and aligned with your goals.

High context data gives AI systems the depth and nuance needed to make more accurate and meaningful decisions. Rather than relying on fragmented datasets, horizontal platforms provide AI with a complete view, helping it to understand relationships, identify opportunities and predict outcomes more effectively.

These platforms also create tailored systems aligned with your goals, often offering businesses the opportunity to reduce their existing SaaS costs.

Era 3: The ecosystem era

The final era of the agentic web represents the realisation of its potential — a fully interconnected agentic economy.

In this phase, businesses evolve into autonomous entities that communicate and transact with one another in real time, creating a seamless web of intelligence and connectivity.

This transformation begins with the major nodes established in Era 2 — platforms that house immutable records and critical business data. Decidr leverages these nodes to create the agentic web layer, enabling every business with a website to rapidly transform into an AI-powered business.

Through our core technology platform, businesses can activate an AI parallel: an autonomous AI-first business that operates alongside their existing websites. By connecting to the major nodes via API, Decidr ensures these AI parallels operate with high context data, empowering them to make intelligent decisions, adapt to changing conditions and collaborate seamlessly with other AI systems.

These AI parallels handle transactions, customer interactions and operational workflows autonomously. They’re guided by the aspirations and ethics of their founders and leaders, who continually ‘tune’ their AI business via natural language, powered by an AI decision support system.

Trust in AI begins to grow, redefining business intelligence by shifting from analysing past performance to exploring multiple AI-generated future scenarios, essentially letting businesses choose their own adventure and shape their preferred outcomes.

This connectivity creates a self-sustaining network of intelligence, transforming businesses from isolated entities to interconnected nodes in a thriving agentic economy.

The Decidr advantage: Leading the agentic evolution

The agentic web is more than the next step in technological evolution — it’s a fundamental reimagining of how we work, create and grow.

This isn’t just about improving efficiency. Freed from the constraints of routine tasks, humans gain the space to focus on strategy, creativity and ethical decision making, unlocking possibilities we’ve only just begun to imagine and many we can’t yet fathom.

The agentic web isn’t a distant vision. It’s unfolding now, shaping a future where innovation has no limits and businesses operate at the height of their potential. The question isn’t whether we’ll embrace this transformation, but how far it can take us. What could your business achieve in a world where intelligence is limitless?

* Clear Web only. Deep Web and Dark Web may have different AI outcomes.
** Reports estimate that creating a custom AI model for commercial use can cost anywhere between $500,000 and $2 million initially, with significant ongoing costs for maintenance and retraining as new data emerges (Forbes, 2023; McKinsey, 2022).