NOTE: This is a tentative workshop draft — Dom and I are working on a CFP:

Introduction

This W3C Workshop aims to gather stakeholders to discuss AI Agents and identify potential areas for standardization. The workshop will explore AI Agents in the Web Ecosystem, Inter-Agent Communication, Use Cases and Requirements for AI Agents, and discuss the needs and opportunities for Web standardization to support AI Agents and a possible future Agentic web.

Possible topics:

1. AI Agents in the Web Ecosystem

This topic investigates how AI agents can be integrated into browsers and web applications, and explores the long-term trajectory of AI agents evolving into autonomous user agents or operating systems.

• How should AI agents relate to web browsers and web applications? What level of integration if any needs to be considered between them?

• How might the presence of AI agents reshape user interaction paradigms and information flows on the Web? What risks to the Web ecosystem might AI agents adding a new intermediation layer to content create for publishers?

• How might AI agents evolve into user agents or operating systems, functioning as next-generation browsers or operating systems?

• What APIs (if any) would be needed to support interaction between web applications and AI agents? What inspiration to draw from ongoing development of LLM/browser interaction APIs

2. Inter-Agent Communication Across the Open Web

To enable a distributed and open ecosystem of AI agents, mechanisms for agents to discover, understand, and collaborate with each other may be needed, and the Web would be a natural candidate for that role.

• How can agents reliably identify and locate other agents across services and domains?

• How can collaboration protocols enable agents to exchange intent, task delegation, capability information, and negotiate roles, to enable agents' automated collaboration?

• How should authentication, authorization, access control, and encryption be handled in agent-to-agent communication?

• To the extent that agents act on behalf of end users, what privacy and security mechanisms need to be built into agent communication?

References on this topic:

• AI in the Browser
• Work in W3C AI Agent Protocol CG
• Paper: A Survey of Agent Interoperability Protocols
• Paper: A Survey of AI Agent Protocols

3. Emerging Use Cases and Requirements for AI Agents

With real-world applications of AI Agents already emerging, understanding the value and limitations of current approaches to AI on the Web is critical to manage their impact on the future of the Web.

• How are agents being used today in contexts such as personal productivity, accessibility, Web search, or automation?

• What positive and negative impact are these new agents having on content and service production and delivery on the Web?

References on this topic:

• Work in W3C Autonomous Agents on the Web CG
• AI in the Browser Threat Modelling

4. Standardization Gaps and Opportunities

As emerging new consumers and likely producers of Web content and services, AI agents may raise new demands for interoperability with standardized foundations.

• Where existing Web standards already support the development and deployment of AI agents, are there changes in how we produce and review these specifications to ensure a better fit with that ecosystem?

• How can agent frameworks align with or extend ongoing specification efforts？

• Where do current W3C standards fall short in enabling agentic behaviors, and where are new specifications needed?

• What role (if any) should W3C play in standardization communication and coordination of AI Agents?

Possible outcomes:

• Understand how AI Agents may impact the Web and what role W3C should play in this standardization.
• Explore possible standard of Inter-Agent Communication across domains.
• Identify what updates to existing standards or new specifications are needed.
• Build a roadmap for W3C standardization in the Agentic Web space.

Meeting format: hybrid (tentatively)

[cc'ing @dontcallmedom @plehegar ]