From dialogue assistants to intelligent execution, how will AI Agents break through next?

*Original Title: *AI Agent Trends: Beyond AI Slop Bots

Original author: 0xJeff (@Defi0xJeff)

Compiled by: Asher (**@Asher_ 0210 )

As global economic uncertainty intensifies and market sentiment remains low, Web3 AI continues to be one of the most reflexively growing sectors. The rapid advancement of AI innovations (such as the strategies of tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Nvidia, and Alibaba) keeps it under high attention.

Currently, the total market value of the AI sector has rebounded to 6 billion dollars after falling to a low of 4 billion dollars in March. Despite the overall market environment being under pressure, some teams are still committed to exploring AI Agent scenarios applicable to the crypto ecosystem. From the early proliferation of conversational AI assistants to solutions that now focus more on solving real problems, some new trends have emerged:

• Sports Analysis and Automated Betting: AI Agent analyzes event data in real-time and autonomously executes betting decisions;
• Trading Assistance and Execution: The smart assistance AI Agent can analyze market trends and execute complex trades;
• DeFi Yield Optimization: The agency system can adjust stablecoin lending strategies in real-time to optimize yields.

DeFAI's Transformation: From Abstract Layer to "Alpha Discovery Layer"

Earlier this year, the popular trend in DeFAI was to build ChatGPT-style interfaces as a layer for user interaction with DeFi protocols. However, practice has shown that merely providing a conversational interface does not lead to a good user experience. The problem lies in the fact that most teams underinvest in the 'reasoning layer' (understanding user intent) and the 'execution layer' (optimizing execution paths), resulting in AI Agents still relying on users' additional judgment when providing strategic recommendations. For instance, instead of using an AI Agent to choose the optimal trading path, it might be more effective to directly use mature tools like Defillama Aggregator, Across, or Pendle.

Therefore, many projects are transitioning to the "Alpha Discovery Layer," which helps users discover the most valuable information in the market. In a market environment with scarce information, finding the best "gold mining points" is key. For example:

• On-chain data analysis: Track smart wallets, fund flows, and obtain leading signals;
• Social platform information mining: Analyze trending topics on X, Telegram, and Discord to capture trends;
• High-end risk management: such as GigabrainGG, providing institutional-level trading signals.

At present, it has not been determined whether existing AI Agents can consistently provide excess Alpha, but some early results have begun to show value.

Multimodal/Multichannel AI Agent

The traditional ChatGPT style of interaction is not suitable for all scenarios, and the Web3 AI Agent is exploring new ways of interaction to integrate more naturally into users' daily workflows.

• Direct interaction on X platform: Cryptocurrency communities are primarily active on the X platform, therefore, agents like Clanker and Bankr are providing services directly through the X platform, simplifying the user operation path.
• Discord voice command: AgentTank allows users to directly control AI to perform on-chain tasks through voice within Discord, achieving more efficient collaboration;
• Web3 Browsing and Execution: Since many cryptocurrency websites do not provide APIs, the Computer Use Agent can simulate human actions, automatically navigate between different websites, scrape data, and execute transactions.

This type of multimodal/multi-channel AI Agent is redefining the user experience of Web3, allowing AI to truly become a part of the trading and research process.

Virtuals: The Core Platform of the AI Agent Ecosystem

The AI Agent tokenization platform of Virtuals has been running for 6 months. Although the overall ecosystem market value has decreased due to market fluctuations, the number of agents has grown from 50 to 716, still making it a leader in the AI Agent field. Currently, the most active application scenarios on Virtuals include:

• GambleFAI: Like Billy Bets, it performs excellently in the AI betting market, even entering the top eight in the ProphetX prediction competition, with an ROI as high as 30%;
• Sports Analysis: Like HeyTracyAI, providing AI-driven analysis and commentary for NBA games;
• Robot & Entity AI: SAM promotes the development of Embodied AI, with the goal of building a decentralized AI computing ecosystem similar to Bittensor.
• Alpha discovered: such as aixbt and Acolyt, focusing on on-chain data analysis and trading signal provision.

Virtuals is still developing the Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), which aims to enable AI agents to collaborate and create a more efficient economic system. The earliest two application scenarios may be agent hedge funds and agent media centers.

Bittensor as AI Infrastructure

Bittensor, with its token Tao, is experiencing a new round of demand growth. Previously, many users only used TAO for staking on the Root Network, but now, more people are willing to invest TAO into the tokens of specific subnets to support specific AI applications.

• dTAO model launched in February: TAO inflation distribution is determined by the market rather than by validator weight. This means that high-value subnets recognized by the market will receive more TAO incentives;
• Growth in Real-World Applications: Subnets such as SN6, 41, and 44 are supporting consumer-level AI Agents, such as Billy Bets and DKING, expanding the real-world application scenarios of Bittensor.

ElizaOS V2 Version and New Launchpad Platform Autofun

ElizaOS has always been one of the most popular AI agent development frameworks, and its V2 version is set to be released soon. At the same time, the new Launchpad platform Autofun will be launched in two weeks, with 15 projects already preparing to join the ecosystem.

• ElizaOS Status: Currently has 15.3k GitHub Stars, 5k Forks, and its market influence is continuously expanding;
• Funding management issues of AI Agents: Sentient recently released a study revealing security vulnerabilities in funding management by AI Agents such as ElizaOS, highlighting the need for stronger security measures in this field.

Despite the challenges, the ecosystem of ElizaOS is still growing rapidly, and its decentralized GPU hosting solution, Comput3 AI, will also debut on the Autofun platform.

Summary

AI Agent remains one of the most promising tracks in Web3, as it not only brings together the innovations of AI and cryptocurrency but also has the potential to reshape the productivity and working methods of the entire industry. From AI trading assistants to cross-chain information capture, from yield optimization to automated execution, AI is introducing a new paradigm for Web3.

Everything is like the internet boom of the 1990s, but on a larger scale and with a deeper impact. For early participants, now is the best time to get in.