a16z releases "The B2A Economy": AI agents become the internet’s main users, and companies need to shift to serving agents
a16z partners Olivia Moore and Justine Moore released Welcome to the B2A Economy, arguing that the internet’s main users have shifted from humans to AI agents. Agents now account for the majority of web traffic, have written more than half of new articles, and generate most production code.
The article cites data: HUMAN Security observed an 8x increase in agent browsing traffic from August to October; on GitHub, as of September, more than 40% of PRs started from agent drafts; Shopify reported that AI-driven traffic grew 8x year over year, and orders from AI search were nearly 13x. Agents are shifting from answering questions to completing tasks, and will determine which products and services are used.
The authors argue that companies once built walls to block bots, but now need to compete for bot business. Beneficiary categories include agents themselves, products newly activated by agents, existing businesses optimized for agent traffic, and agent infrastructure. The article says this is the early stage of a platform shift, and the change in distribution mechanisms has only just begun.
Original source: a16z.com/welcome-to-the-b2a-economy
ABAB AI Insight
Venture capital firm a16z positions AI agents as the internet’s main users, arguing that companies need to shift from serving humans to serving agents. The a16z article says agents already account for most traffic and dominate code and content generation, citing data such as HUMAN Security’s 8x traffic growth and more than 40% of PRs on GitHub starting from agent drafts. Agents will determine product choices and consumer spending.
Unlike search engines or recommendation algorithms deciding visibility, this path further outsources decision-making power to agents. In a similar situation, capital would focus more on the proportion of agent traffic that converts into actual transactions, and on the real cost for companies to optimize interfaces and data for agents. The article says most current traffic still operates through browsers simulating human actions, but direct access via connectors and MCP is emerging.
This framework extends internet users from humans to agents. The beneficiaries are companies and infrastructure providers that optimize agent interactions; websites optimized only for human users face the risk of traffic decline. The structural change is that the distribution entry point shifts from search and recommendations to agent selection, and companies need to treat agents as first-class customers.
Cognitive laws
Agents become the main source of traffic and code generation, shifting internet users from humans to agents.
Companies shift from blocking bots to competing for bot business, and the distribution mechanism shifts.
Agents determine product choices and spending, further outsourcing human decision-making.