I think you're right: Agents are at first just an LLM wrapper (app, can even be a Spreadsheet).
For me, the question of which protocols are used to communicate with the environment (MCP et al) ist just one and not even the most interesting question. Other questions uncover better, why agents are "a different kind of software" and why they might vastly change how we think of and use software:
- Stochastic not deterministic (evals/tests are crucial, creating reliable systems is much harder)
- conversational not forms (changes how we write software, and what we need to know for great UX)
- modalities, especially voice, change how we use computers (screens may become less important),
- batch with occasional real-time vs interactive might change how we feel that software works "for us"
- different unit economics (inference costs are significant compared to traditional run-time costs) change how software can be marketed
- data-driven capabilities on every level may change value chains and dictate how agents can work (if data is the moat, will agents need to "go to" the data owner and will be closely guarded of what they can extract/use?, much more than just traditional AAA)
- agents can be implemented in a way that they get better "themselves", because LLMs can be trained with data - will model providers capture most of the value of specialized vertical solutions? Is code less valuable than data/LLMs in the end?
- human-agent-relationship: By definition, agents act on someones behalf. This may again change how we interact with services/websites/content. Currently our personal systems are just like terminals. Will our interactions with services/websites etc. be mediated by "our" personal agents, or will we continue to use the different services, directly (and their agents, too)? Depending on that, the internet as we know it might change dramatically - services must deal more with agents than to humans, directly.
Bottom line: Agents are just an LLM wrapper, but they have the potential to dramatically change a lot of things around software. That's what's interesting about it, in my view.
For me, the question of which protocols are used to communicate with the environment (MCP et al) ist just one and not even the most interesting question. Other questions uncover better, why agents are "a different kind of software" and why they might vastly change how we think of and use software:
- Stochastic not deterministic (evals/tests are crucial, creating reliable systems is much harder)
- conversational not forms (changes how we write software, and what we need to know for great UX)
- modalities, especially voice, change how we use computers (screens may become less important),
- batch with occasional real-time vs interactive might change how we feel that software works "for us"
- different unit economics (inference costs are significant compared to traditional run-time costs) change how software can be marketed
- data-driven capabilities on every level may change value chains and dictate how agents can work (if data is the moat, will agents need to "go to" the data owner and will be closely guarded of what they can extract/use?, much more than just traditional AAA)
- agents can be implemented in a way that they get better "themselves", because LLMs can be trained with data - will model providers capture most of the value of specialized vertical solutions? Is code less valuable than data/LLMs in the end?
- human-agent-relationship: By definition, agents act on someones behalf. This may again change how we interact with services/websites/content. Currently our personal systems are just like terminals. Will our interactions with services/websites etc. be mediated by "our" personal agents, or will we continue to use the different services, directly (and their agents, too)? Depending on that, the internet as we know it might change dramatically - services must deal more with agents than to humans, directly.
Bottom line: Agents are just an LLM wrapper, but they have the potential to dramatically change a lot of things around software. That's what's interesting about it, in my view.