The Data Economy in the Age of Agents: A Perspective on the Future of Agents as Customers

Abstract

The expansion of artificial intelligence is changing how knowledge circulates and is monetized on the web. Systems retrieve information from external sources and deliver answers that can replace a user's visit, while those sources continue to bear the costs of producing and maintaining the content. From 2028 or 2029 onward, queries from autonomous agents with spending budgets would become the main monetization channel for a significant part of the knowledge web. The agent would act as a customer capable of selecting and acquiring resources to complete a task on behalf of its user. The literature on information goods and micropayments provides a basis for examining this transition. Access data from sihita.org, a public repository of water information in Tarija, Bolivia, place it in a regional context. HTTP 402, x402, Cloudflare's Monetization Gateway and Pay per Use, together with licensing marketplaces, offer mechanisms for charging for access to and use of content. For institutions that produce specialized knowledge, the period 2026–2028 represents an opportunity to prepare their offerings and explore commercial relationships with these customers, combining paid services with public access to knowledge.