Where Will Your Agent Live?
- by Joe Alagna
In the real world, people have addresses. In the virtual world, they do too. Usually, these are domain names (or usernames if on social platforms). I’ve argued for years that we need, and will continue to need, domain names. They’re intuitive. We understand them.
Recently, ICONIQ released a report on The State of AI in 2025. In it, they noted that 80% of native AI companies are building “Agentic Workflows.” In a sense, these are digital beings. They’ll likely interact with one another directly. But it would be naive to think they won’t also need to interface with human beings. When they do, they’ll need a digital home—a domain name.
That’s where things get interesting. Starting in April 2026, there will be a 90-day window to apply for new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This is rare, and it could give AI developers and startups a serious competitive edge.
Imagine controlling your own Agentic Universe with your own TLD. Your agent could dominate that namespace and have exclusive control regarding how it’s used. It could create and manage sub-agents, clients, vendors, or users… all under that single, memorable domain umbrella.
Take this example: a travel assistant AI that lives at .TRAVELAGENT. It could issue subdomains to each client. If I were a client, I could get joealagna.travelagent. That address could hold my personalized itineraries and travel history, all managed by the AI. It’s private, branded, and frictionless. How could I forget that? It could be private or public depending on my selection. I would simply type in joealagna.travlagent and be presenteed with my trips and itineraries.
Now imagine an education agent managing a school or tutoring network. The AI could live at .EDULEAD. Each student or teacher might get their own address: emma.edulead, mrsmith.edulead. Homework, class schedules, or personalized learning portals could live there, managed by the agent. It’s scalable and intuitive.
This is new territory. It hasn’t been done yet. And it’s entirely possible.
We’ve all made Verisign and Berkshire Hathaway plenty of money through .com domains. The Agentic Universe doesn’t have to play by those rules. If you’re building the future, you might as well own a piece of it.
Resource:
ICONIQ Growth: The State of AI in 2025
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