Interview, Fireside Chat
Agent Experience: Building an Open Web for the AI Era
- Netlify's strategic focus centers on optimizing the agent experience (AX) for both platform usage and the broader web, where agents are expected to multiply development capabilities.
- The organization plans to introduce new infrastructure primitives and APIs designed to enable zero-friction agent deployments without requiring human authentication.
- Market predictions indicate that nearly all new products will be built natively for the web using JavaScript and TypeScript with heavy reliance on third-party APIs.
- The "Jamstack" terminology is projected to evolve into a standard descriptor for general development practices rather than a distinct architectural category.
- AI acceleration is expected to drive the cost of creating code and content toward zero, resulting in accelerated code output and increased asset generation.
- A significant platform shift toward "UI 2.0" is anticipated, enabling fundamentally new web building methods that were previously unfeasible.
- Over the next couple of years, the cost and feasibility improvements in AI are expected to allow small web teams to produce real 3D assets.
- Current data shows approximately 10,000 sites daily are being generated by AI tools like Bolt.new, a trend expected to spawn a new generation of technically proficient users who begin as non-technical prompters.
- Professional developers are predicted to increasingly use AI agents to generate boilerplate and templates, reducing the need to build applications from scratch.
- Infrastructure evolution will favor serverless databases and primitives scaling to zero to support ephemeral applications, particularly as the stack approaches the application layer.
- Within five years, the developer ecosystem is expected to expand by another 100 million users, characterized by deep stack expertise for experts and shallow, agent-handled work for others.
- The future cost of building both internal and general applications is forecast to approach zero.
- The web will remain the primary platform for differentiated, full-fledged creative productions delivered by teams leveraging these new capabilities.