The agent economy is reshaping the foundation of enterprise artificial intelligence, turning autonomous agents into the new orchestrators of digital infrastructure, services and capital.
As AI evolves from isolated automation into dynamic, multi-agent ecosystems, organizations are rethinking what scale, speed and value creation truly look like. These intelligent agents aren’t just optimizing workflows — they’re tapping into APIs, connecting distributed compute and opening the door to entirely new business models. From telecoms to finance, the agent-driven shift is setting the stage for more adaptive, responsive and monetizable AI ecosystems across nearly every sector, according to Mark Castleman (pictured), managing director for Intel AI Cloud at Intel Corp.
Intel’s Mark Castleman talks about the agent economy to theCUBE.
“Those agents are also going to consume API,” Castleman said. “They’re going to turn up and turn down services, they’re going to push and pull data, they’re going to make calculations and they’re going to execute other agents to do other things in some additional workflow. Think of the agent construct as these things [that] are working around as a deconstruction of a single app, but now I can do it for myself.”
Castleman spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier at theCUBE + NYSE Wired: AI + Cloud Leaders Media Week event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, News Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how the agent economy is transforming AI infrastructure, business models and global strategies by enabling intelligent agents to orchestrate workflows, monetize APIs and accelerate decision-making across industries.
The agent economy and the new business model for AI infrastructure
A central insight emerging in this agent economy is the idea that APIs are no longer just technical interfaces — they’re the toll roads of tomorrow’s AI economy. As AI agents grow more capable of initiating tasks, pulling data and coordinating decisions, they drive demand for scalable, responsive infrastructure. This turns underutilized systems into valuable assets, simply by wiring them into intelligent workflows, according to Castleman.
“If the agents can get their act together and we can figure out how to wire them up and consume the APIs, you have a nice business model,” he said. “Those apps were consuming services, API services … they’re basically dipping into a lot of different data stores to get information or to trigger activity.”
This model reframes how we think about apps too. Instead of single-purpose programs built for mass consumption, AI agents can now replicate those capabilities in custom ways. By deconstructing the traditional app and enabling agents to independently connect to services like banks, telecoms and healthcare providers, AI becomes more personal — and infrastructure providers become platform gatekeepers, Castleman explained.
“I don’t have to have a single app doing it for 100,000 people. I have one collection or maybe a collection of agents doing something for me,” he said. “The cool thing there is that I have an account at my mobile provider, I have an account at my bank and I have health data. My agent can talk to all of these different things and push and pull data and then set appointments or make trades or do other things based upon other activity.”
As this shift accelerates, competitive advantage depends on clarity, speed and strategic precision. The agent economy compresses value cycles, turning what used to take years into just months or weeks. That means hesitation isn’t just costly; it could be fatal in fast-moving markets, according to Castleman.
“Quickly making decisions, being clear about what you’re trying to achieve and then executing toward that is super important,” he added. “Any pause is going to be a major problem.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of News’s and theCUBE’s coverage of theCUBE + NYSE Wired: AI + Cloud Leaders Media Week event:
Photo: News
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