Artificial intelligence (AI) experts in both research and industry increasingly see AI agents as the next big leap in innovation. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, highlighted this trend when the company launched its custom GPT store, predicting that AI agents would soon handle far more complex tasks than current co-pilot technologies.
Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of Hubspot, agrees, believing that networks of AI agents collaborating on complex tasks—often without human oversight—are the next frontier. Shah told ZDNET in a recent interview, “Over time, we’re going to see these agents working together.” He noted that AI agents are an “upgraded version of the co-pilot,” capable of managing multi-step, higher-order goals, marking a significant shift in how businesses operate.
AI Networks: The New Paradigm
Hubspot, in competition with Salesforce, is pioneering this vision by developing AI agents to assist with customer relationship management (CRM) functions like sales, marketing, and operations. At its recent Inbound conference, Hubspot unveiled a platform called Agents.ai, an agent network designed to create an interconnected marketplace for these digital assistants. The network is part of a broader AI product suite called Breeze, which already has 47,000 users and over 1,700 developers building customized agents.
Shah described the network as a “professional network for AI agents” akin to LinkedIn for humans. Within this ecosystem, agents could work together, with “mini-agents” performing specific tasks and reporting to supervisory agents. For instance, one agent could gather public company data, while another could analyze website traffic. These agents could then collaborate, pooling their insights for higher-level decision-making.
The Future of CRM: AI-Driven Innovation
Shah believes this model represents a paradigm shift for CRM software, which has already been transformed by cloud computing. “We’ve seen a lot of innovation in the cloud era,” he said, referencing the rise of cloud-based CRM solutions in the mid-2000s. Now, AI-driven CRMs will usher in a new era of intelligent software, fundamentally reshaping how businesses manage customer relationships.
In this evolving landscape, competition between companies like Hubspot and Salesforce will center on which platform offers the best agent-driven ecosystem. As Shah put it, “Agents are the new application,” meaning developers will increasingly build AI-driven tools instead of traditional web-based applications.
Natural Language as a Game-Changer for Agent Collaboration
One of the key advantages of this new generation of AI agents is their ability to communicate and collaborate through natural language. Shah explained that past efforts to enable digital collaboration, such as the CORBA standard in the 1990s, were often limited by complex interoperability issues. In contrast, modern AI agents use natural language processing as the “connective tissue” for working together, making it easier to integrate various agents into a cohesive system.
Shah sees this development as groundbreaking. “The APIs for agents are essentially natural language,” he said. This innovation allows both humans and other agents to communicate with AI agents without needing to learn a new programming language, paving the way for unprecedented levels of interoperability.
Preparing for the AI-Driven Future
As AI agents become more advanced, they are expected to become “digital teammates,” capable of automating increasingly complex tasks with little human intervention. The Agents.ai marketplace will help users find the best agents for specific tasks, creating a new ecosystem where AI agents can be rated and reviewed based on their performance.
Shah believes that this transformation will create opportunities for a new generation of developers to build innovative solutions using AI agents. “We now have an opportunity to shape the developer ecosystem around agents,” he said. The shift from traditional applications to agent-driven systems will fundamentally alter the way businesses operate, with AI agents at the center of this change.
