The internet's next chapter moves beyond serving pages to executing complex, long-duration AI agent workflows. This paradigm shift, as articulated by Vercel's CEO, necessitates a new "AI Cloud" built to handle persistent, stateful processes that "think" for extended periods.

Google is integrating AI agents directly into search, allowing users to create ongoing tasks like monitoring apartment listings. This transforms search from a tool for one-time information retrieval into a persistent service that works 24/7, a fundamental shift in its core function and user interaction model.

The dominant AI use case will shift from real-time, human-in-the-loop chatbots to long-running background agents. For these agents, which work for hours or days, an extra few seconds of latency is meaningless, unlocking massive cost-saving opportunities by prioritizing throughput over speed.

The current model of agentic search is 'pull-based,' where an agent queries the web for information. The next evolution will be 'push-based,' where the web infrastructure constantly monitors for changes and notifies agents when specific, actionable events occur, triggering new work.

While a single human chat prompt can trigger 5-10 searches, the true explosion in search volume comes from background agents. These agents continuously monitor portfolios or prepare for meetings, running thousands of searches autonomously and multiplying a single developer's setup into millions of queries.

The next leap in AI's value will come from "agents" that work on problems autonomously without direct, real-time user commands. This shift from a reactive, search-engine-like model to a proactive, problem-solving one will drive a 5x increase in compute consumption and unlock new applications.

Instead of being replaced by AI chatbots or agents, Pichai believes Search will evolve to manage them. Users will run multiple, long-running tasks, and Search will become the interface to orchestrate these agentic flows, expanding its capabilities rather than becoming obsolete.

The era of prompt engineering is ending. The future is proactive AI agents working in the background to surface critical information. These agents will automatically monitor for and alert teams to competitor launches, new patent filings, and regulatory changes, shifting from a manual 'pull' to an automated 'push' model of intelligence.

Unlike session-based chatbots, locally run AI agents with persistent, always-on memory can maintain goals indefinitely. This allows them to become proactive partners, autonomously conducting market research and generating business ideas without constant human prompting.