AI Agents and Ecosystems Contestability

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is radically transforming how consumers interact with digital devices and ecosystems. As AI systems evolve from a solely cloud-based technology to a hybrid one, new interface designs are set to emerge: whereby AI agents, rather than a specific device, app or search engine, provide the unique access point for users to the Internet and digital services. These agents will act as highly knowledgeable and secure personal assistants, learning users’ preferences and performing high-level, multi-stage, multi-service tasks with a significant degree of autonomy.  

Given their capacity to steer consumers’ demand, input, and data, AI agents have significant potential to disrupt the “gatekeepers” that currently control consumer access to the digital sphere. As such, it is essential that policy makers and regulators understand the technical and economic consequences of this technology for consumer choice as well as contestability and fairness in digital markets. 

In recent years, the EU has developed a comprehensive digital regulatory framework, including the P2B Regulation, DMA, DSA, Data Act, and AI Act, while actively enforcing competition law in digital markets. Although these legal frameworks weren’t designed specifically for AI agents, certain provisions could apply to them- providing insights into how competition law may impact AI agent operations. This research assesses the applicability of each act to AI agents and examines obligations that address AI agent contestability, offering a foundation for understanding the EU’s preparedness for regulating AI agents.  

To this end, authors Friso Bostoen and Jan Krämer map out the crucial elements of the AI agent value chain and identify key competitive bottlenecks. They describe a regulatory framework for AI agents that is fragmented with respect to its applicability and obligations. Their analysis examines how AI agent services align with the established categories upon which much of the EU digital acquis is built; from online platforms, to search engines, to virtual assistants. They stress that cooperation between authorities will be crucial to coordinating the enforcement between different acts, especially in areas of overlap such as data access and interoperability.