{"id":900043,"date":"2025-04-15T09:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T16:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/?p=900043"},"modified":"2025-04-24T18:06:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T01:06:04","slug":"insights-from-the-ai-agent-congress-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/15\/insights-from-the-ai-agent-congress-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights from the AI Agent Congress 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What did 40+ AI Agent CEO\/Founders talk about in a closed room session?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-1024x577.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900062\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-1024x577.png 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-768x433.png 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-1536x866.png 1536w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-2048x1154.png 2048w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-24-at-10.28.13-AM-1920x1080.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AI Agents:\u00a0Software that can independently think and act, often in unison with humans or with other AI agents.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few weeks ago, I hosted an intimate event for about 40+ AI Agent founders and select VCs to dive deeper into what&#8217;s happening in this emerging market. The event had a Chatham house rule, meaning anyone can use the insights, but we don&#8217;t reference others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This post is an event recap, from the&nbsp;AI Agent Congress 2, and event I led, organized but was partnered with my friend&nbsp;Bogdan Cristei,&nbsp;hosted at&nbsp;SHACK15&nbsp;above the Ferry Building in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also we were led by a kickoff speech by&nbsp;Ginny Fahs&nbsp;from Consumer Reports who&#8217;s focused on standards within the agentic space.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s clear the leading agentic founders are deeply focused on three critical themes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Topic 1: Trust &amp; Control<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facilitated by Chris Yeh (Blitzscaling Ventures), founders explored:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How to build agent identities that remain loyal to users<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How to maintain control boundaries<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How to foster long-term trustThis was a top topic, as humans will need to trust AI agents like their own personal assistants to conduct tasks on their behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Topic 2: Real-World Deployment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facilitated by Bogdan Cristei (SHACK15), the group shared what&#8217;s actually working in production. Key takeaways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use cases included customer support agents, internal copilots, and early monetization approaches<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A common pattern: AI agents gather all company or user cloud data, then provide natural language querying as the first feature<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes sense\u2014before agents can act, they need a complete view of the data<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Topic 3 Multi-Agent Interoperability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabriela de Queiroz (Microsoft for Startups) led a discussion on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether agents from different systems can\u2014or should\u2014work together<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Expectations for emerging interoperability standards<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A guest from the Robotics space shared lessons from manufacturing and robotics on how standards evolved\u2014or failed to (warehouse or consumer robots were not able to adopt the heavier standards from car companies)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Congress used an unconference format, allowing founders to self-organize around sticky-note-pitched topics. The breakout themes that followed were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Go-to-Market, Multi-Agent Systems, Trust and new mediums<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the unconference breakouts, teams also explored pricing models. A few groups discussed a &#8220;pay for success&#8221; model, where agents are only paid if predefined goals are met. However, this introduces complexity\u2014both parties must first align on what \u201csuccess\u201d means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My take: subscription-based models, possibly with usage-based pricing, are more likely to prevail\u2014unless the agent is designed for a niche vertical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2022\" height=\"1196\" data-id=\"900045\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900045\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968.jpeg 2022w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968-300x177.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968-1024x606.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968-768x454.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677566968-1536x909.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2022px) 100vw, 2022px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1156\" data-id=\"900046\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900046\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411-1024x578.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411-768x434.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677567411-1536x867.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1878\" height=\"1536\" data-id=\"900048\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532.jpeg 1878w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532-300x245.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532-1024x838.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532-768x628.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677570532-1536x1256.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1878px) 100vw, 1878px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1307\" data-id=\"900047\" src=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-900047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333-300x191.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333-1024x654.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333-768x490.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743677569333-1536x980.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What did 40+ AI Agent CEO\/Founders talk about in a closed room session? AI Agents:&nbsp;Software that can independently think and act, often in unison with humans or with other AI agents.. A few weeks ago, I hosted an intimate event for about 40+ AI Agent &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/15\/insights-from-the-ai-agent-congress-2\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span>Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Insights from the AI Agent Congress 2<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-strategist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}