Your Next Customer Is an AI Agent

Last week we talked about the professional athlete mindset. The game changed. If you're not training, you're getting cut.

This week: the game changed for everyone. Not just builders. Everyone.

How 7 Billion People Lived the Last 10 Years

You managed your own life.

Booked your own flights. Compared prices across six tabs. Ordered your own food. Scrolled through menus deciding what you wanted. Scheduled your own appointments. Back and forth emails finding a time that works.

Researched your own purchases. Read reviews. Watched YouTube comparisons. Asked friends. Made a decision. Second-guessed it. Made another decision.

Paid your own bills. Managed your own calendar. Renewed your own subscriptions. Canceled the ones you forgot about.

Every app assumed a human on the other side. Every interface was built for you to click, scroll, tap, decide.

Billions of hours. Every day. Spent on tasks that don't require human judgment.

Checking prices. Finding availability. Filling forms. Comparing options. Scheduling calls. Managing logistics.

This is how we've lived. This is what we accepted as normal.

It's about to change.

How 7 Billion People Will Live the Next 10 Years

Your agent does it for you.

Not some of it. Most of it.

Your agent books the flight. Knows you prefer aisle seats, hate layovers, and always regret buying basic economy. Books accordingly.

Your agent orders dinner. Knows what you're in the mood for based on what you've eaten this week, what's in your fridge, what your schedule looks like tonight. Handles it.

Your agent schedules the doctor. Finds availability that works with your calendar, books it, adds the reminder, sends you prep instructions the day before.

Your agent pays the bills. Optimizes your accounts. Catches the subscriptions you forgot about. Moves money where it needs to go.

Your agent manages your calendar. Protects your focus time. Declines meetings that don't matter. Reschedules conflicts before you know they exist.

Not for tech people. For everyone.

For your parents who call you to help with their phone. For the small business owner buried in admin. For the single mom who doesn't have time to compare 47 options.

Today, software is primarily built for people to use. But it's very clear that there will be trillions of agents in the future, executing every type of task for us imaginable.

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.

Trillions of agents. Handling the tasks humans shouldn't have to think about.

This is the biggest shift in how people interact with technology since the smartphone.

What Makes This Possible

Agents can only act where they're allowed to act.

An agent can book your flight because airline APIs exist. An agent can order your food because delivery platforms have APIs. An agent can manage your calendar because Google and Apple opened access.

No API? Your agent can't help you.

That's it. That's the entire constraint.

The agent wants to schedule your plumber. But there's no API. So you're back to phone calls.

The agent wants to refill your prescription. But the pharmacy doesn't have open access. So you're back to waiting on hold.

The agent wants to book your kid's soccer registration. But the local league runs on paper forms. So you're back to PDFs and signatures.

'The gap between "agents could do this" and "agents can do this" is entirely about access.'

APIs are the doors. If the door is open, agents walk through. If the door is closed, humans are stuck doing it themselves.

What's Missing

Look around. Most of daily life has no agent access.

Local services. Plumbers. Electricians. Cleaners. Movers. No APIs. Your agent can't book them. You're back to Yelp and phone calls.

Healthcare. Your agent can't schedule most appointments. Can't refill most prescriptions. Can't access most records. You're back to patient portals and hold music.

Government. Your agent can't renew your license. Can't pay your property taxes. Can't file your permits. You're back to DMV lines and paper forms.

Education. Your agent can't register your kid for school. Can't sign permission slips. Can't track assignments across five different classroom apps.

Real estate. Your agent can't search all listings. Can't schedule all viewings. Can't handle the paperwork. Fragmented systems everywhere.

Small businesses. Your agent can't book the local restaurant that doesn't use OpenTable. Can't schedule with the salon that uses a paper book. Can't order from the shop without an online store.

These aren't edge cases. This is most of life.

The places where agents work are the exception. Everything else is still stuck in the old world.

We're Already Living This

Last week, one of our agents recommended a security tool we'd never heard of. Didn't ask us to evaluate. Just integrated it and explained why.

Same thing happened with a video API. Agent evaluated three options, tested the endpoints, picked one. Told us after.

No landing page. No demo. No sales call.

The agent knew our stack, knew what broke last time, knew exactly what we needed.

But then we needed to book a contractor for some work. Back to phone calls. Back to waiting for callbacks. Back to comparing quotes manually.

The contrast is jarring. In one world, the agent handles everything. In the other world, we're back to 2010.

That gap is the opportunity.

The Builder Opportunity

Two paths. Both wide open.

Build the access.

Most industries have no API. Local services. Healthcare. Government. Education.

No API means agents can't act. Someone has to build the door.

The builder who creates the API layer for an industry becomes the infrastructure. Agents can't route around you. Every agent that serves that industry goes through what you built.

Build the agents.

General-purpose agents exist. Claude, GPT, Gemini. They can do anything, which means they're optimized for nothing specific.

Specialized agents don't exist yet.

An agent that handles healthcare for your family. Knows your history. Knows your insurance. Knows your doctors. Handles scheduling, refills, records, billing.

An agent that runs your small business. Knows your customers. Knows your operations. Handles invoicing, scheduling, inventory, follow-ups.

An agent that manages your household. Knows your family's schedules. Knows your preferences. Handles groceries, repairs, appointments, logistics.

These don't exist. Someone will build them.

Build the trust layer.

Agents need to act on your behalf. Book things. Buy things. Sign things.

That requires trust. Verification. Permissions. Security.

The infrastructure for agent trust barely exists. Payments, identity, authorization. All of it needs to be rebuilt for a world where agents act, not humans.

The APIs are the roads. The agents are the cars. The trust layer is the traffic system.

All three need to be built.

The Signals

When you hear these, you're hearing the future:

'"My agent handled that..." Someone built the access.'

'"I still have to call them..." No one built the access yet.'

"There's no API for that..." That's your opening.

'"It only works if I log in myself..." The door is closed.'

'"I wish my agent could just..." Someone should build that.'

The Questions

What tasks do you still do manually that don't require your judgment?

What industries do you interact with that have no agent access?

What would your life look like if an agent could handle 80% of your logistics?

Now flip it:

What access doesn't exist that you could build?

What agents don't exist that you could create?

What infrastructure is missing that you could provide?

That's where the next decade of companies will come from.

Vol 1: The opportunity exists. Economics changed.

Vol 2: Smart operators doing dumb work. Patterns to spot.

Vol 3: Stop automating. Start eliminating.

Vol 4: The game changed. Train like it matters.

Vol 5: Agents will run daily life. Build for 7 billion people.

The pattern continues. Every week, the landscape shifts.

7 billion people are about to live differently.

The builders who create the infrastructure will own the future.

What will agents be able to do because of what you build?

—Mike & Govind

See an industry with no agent access? That's your opportunity. Forward this to a builder who should see it.