alt Hacker NewsI have previously made a similar comment to this, but just to reiterate and expand it: the wave of “let agents automate everything” has a whiff of “let’s automate everything by plugging it into IFTTT.” In the end most companies pulled out of IFTTT because it ate into engagement and people actually using the platforms. If I automate posting to Instagram through an API, Meta is missing out on revenue from ads not being shown to me.
I predict the same thing happening with AI agents. The direct analogy here is United is missing out on revenue by being unable to trick me into paying to choose my seats or whatever. Luckily, it will be a harder for the platforms to cut off agents but they will try.
I run a small e-signature service and went the opposite way, I gave agents their own door (an API and an MCP server. I never made money from the pages they skip. No ads, no upsells in the flow. People use it free and software pays per document past a free allowance, so an agent is a customer.
United makes a real share of its money on the screens between search and pay. An agent moves right past all of that. Idk, I think eventually everyone will accept the AI agents.