What is WebMCP? Agentic Web and Websites Interacting with AI Agents
WebMCP and the Agentic Web: How Websites Are Starting to Speak with AI Agents
Many concepts are being discussed in the field of artificial intelligence recently.
However, most of these remain on the model side, such as better LLMs, larger context windows, and stronger reasoning.
WebMCP (Web Model Context Protocol) stands in a different place.
This time, what is changing is not the model, but the web itself.
Shared by the Google Chrome team as an early preview, WebMCP APIs aim for websites to interact with AI agents more reliably and performantly. This brings us closer to a new era called the "Agentic Web."
In this post, I want to discuss what WebMCP offers, how it differs from current web automation approaches, and what it means for businesses, presented in a calm, clear framework.
Today's Problem: The Web Was Not Designed for Agents
Today, AI agents can interact with websites, but this interaction is fundamentally indirect and fragile.
- HTML parsing
- DOM-dependent automations
- Selenium / RPA based solutions
- Flows that are hypersensitive to UI changes
The common point of these methods is this:
The website does not explicitly tell agents what can be done.
Agents try to "understand" the page.
This approach is both costly and difficult to scale.
What Does WebMCP Propose?
WebMCP aims for websites to offer structured capabilities (tools) to AI agents.
Simply put:
- The site defines which operations can be performed
- These operations can be called via a standard API
- The agent does not have to guess page behavior
This structure consists of two main components:
- Declarative definitions (Which operations are possible?)
- Imperative calls (Execute the operation now)
As a result,
Agents can call functions directly instead of dealing with the UI.
This difference is fundamental for web automation.
Why Do Screen Scraping and Classic Automations Fall Short?
Current automation approaches are generally:
- Affected by UI changes
- Have high maintenance costs
- Remain limited in terms of security and authorization
WebMCP aims to make these requirements a natural part of the web platform.
In this respect, WebMCP can be seen as a more pragmatic version of the long-discussed "semantic" approaches.
It does not propose a new way of writing the web; it is simply added on top of the existing structure.
A New Optimization Area: Discoverability for Agents
One of the points that stands out in the WebMCP documentation is the emphasis that tool discoverability is not yet a solved problem.
This means:
- Agents must discover which site offers which capabilities
- This discovery process will be supported by search engines and similar mechanisms in the future
A parallelism similar to SEO arises here:
- Today, pages are optimized for users and search engines.
- In the near future, websites will also be optimized according to the selection criteria of AI agents.
We define this area as Agent SEO, or more generally, agent-facing optimization.
How Could the Structure of Websites Change?
As this approach becomes widespread, it is quite likely that two different layers will form on websites:
- Human-focused layer: Visual, branded, and narrative-oriented.
- Agent-focused layer: Structured, schema-based, and fast.
While some operations are carried out entirely through agents, the human interface may only come into play for:
- Steps requiring approval
- Exceptional cases
This represents the application of the "headless" concept in a much broader context.
Business Models and the Advertising Side
The Agentic Web approach raises several questions, particularly for business models built on the attention economy.
If an AI agent can:
- Perform operations directly
- Without seeing the homepage
- While bypassing campaign areas
The value of traditional ad impressions may need to be reconsidered.
This is not a short-term outcome, but it opens an important area of discussion regarding how the web economy functions in the long run.
Security, Authorization, and Auditing
Agents performing operations on behalf of the user naturally bring new security questions:
- How will agent identity be verified?
- Which operations will require explicit user consent?
- How will agent activities be recorded?
It seems inevitable that the authentication and authorization approaches we discuss in financial systems today will evolve similarly for agents.
This field has a legal and regulatory dimension as well as a technical one.
Potential Impacts for Turkey
One of the most concrete impacts of WebMCP and similar approaches for Turkey could be accessibility.
- Public services
- Banking applications
- Health systems
- Complex digital forms
Making these simpler and understandable through AI agents could provide significant gains in terms of user experience.
Conclusion: A Small API, A Significant Shift in Direction
WebMCP is in its early stages today.
However, the direction it points to is quite clear:
The web is starting to be structured not only for humans but also for AI agents.
This is not just a "trend" on its own; it is a new layer in the evolution of the web.
At Zeo, we closely follow these developments through their technical, strategic, and operational dimensions. Specifically, agent-first architectures and web experiences optimized for agents will be discussed much more in the coming period.
For this reason, we view WebMCP as an early but significant signal worth considering.
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