The evolution of autonomous commerce involving AI agents could transform the internet economy, potentially leading to the disappearance of advertising, according to a16z Crypto.
Curated agent marketplaces look a lot like AOL. Open payment protocols look a lot like HTTP. The last time this happened, HTTP won.
What will prevail in the age of agentic commerce? pic.twitter.com/hFura0Sbxx
— a16z crypto (@a16zcrypto) March 22, 2026
Since the inception of the World Wide Web, purchasing goods and services typically involved visiting store websites.
The internet business model was built on “attention diversion”: users would browse content, notice an appealing ad, and click the link.
However, LLM and digital assistants operate differently—they execute specific algorithms and simply do not get distracted by marketing ploys.
“The irony: advertising gave the world a free internet, from which a dataset of 10 trillion tokens emerged. These data trained language models, which are now undermining the advertising model itself,” noted Merit Systems co-founder Sam Ragsdale.
In the digital realm, “closed clubs” like Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn remained. They invested billions in engineers to protect user data around the clock.
However, AI agents with computer vision have learned to mimic human behavior online so convincingly that the line between bot and real user has virtually disappeared.
Open Protocols Instead of Closed Ecosystems
ChatGPT, Gemini, and other leading AI platforms have added instant payment functions for users in the US. Goods can be purchased directly within the chat interface, without leaving it.
However, such services are new closed ecosystems where sellers undergo strict selection. According to Ragsdale, the future lies in agentic commerce based on open protocols like x402 from Coinbase and MPP from Tempo and Stripe.
“An assistant capable of buying only from pre-approved sellers is like an employee with a corporate card limited to three suppliers. An agent with open protocols is like an entrepreneur with a bank account,” he compared.
The idea is not new—the “402” status code (Payment Required) was proposed back in 1997, but there was no way to conduct micropayments with a fixed fee below a cent. Now this issue is resolved, thanks to stablecoins.
“In 1997, the internet had no business model, and no one knew why a server should talk to a stranger. Open protocols and the clever hack of advertising solved this problem, and civilization went digital. In 2026, this hack is dying. Open protocols and status codes will replace it,” concluded Ragsdale.
Earlier in March, a16z venture partner Noah Levin stated that the actual transaction volume of AI agents was 15 times lower than Bloomberg’s estimates.
