Industry Shifts Emphasize Agents Over Chatbots

In a recent column, Mala Bhargava argues that while AI agents capable of acting on users' behalf are gaining traction, conversational chatbots remain essential for exploration and trust. She notes firms like OpenAI and Google (Gemini) are pushing agentic features and monetization, including ads inside ChatGPT, which shifts chat toward transactions and raises implications for user experience and design.