a16zCrypto: AgenticAI business or end the current Internet advertising model

On March 23, a16zCrypto said that an autonomous AI agent-driven business model could end the online advertising we know today and reshape the Internet's economy. Since the birth of the Internet, purchasing goods or services has often required users to visit online stores (some of which are channeled through advertising). However, SamRagsdale, co-founder of MeritSystems, believes that this model may change if AI agents complete purchases for users in the future. In an article posted on the a16z blog on Sunday, Ragsdale said the Internet's business model has been "distracting" from 1997 to 2024. He pointed out: "Humans are distracted by advertisements when browsing the web, thereby monetizing traffic; but large language models (LLMs) and AI agents are not distracted." According to MordorIntelligence, the online advertising market is expected to reach US$291 billion in 2025, dominated by search giant Google. He also said: "There is a wonderful irony that advertising created a free and open Internet, which in turn became a 10 trillion token dataset that ultimately gave birth to the big language model and may in turn lead to the decline of advertising."