The Open Agentic Web Challenge: building an agent economy that works for everyone

Detailed summary

$13,000 global challenge invites developers to build open, interoperable AI agents on today's web Supported by Cognizant AI Lab, MIT Media Lab's NANDA program, Mozilla, United…

LISBON, Portugal, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Web Summit -- Organizations spanning research, industry, technology standards and civil society today announced the Open Agentic Web Challenge, a global initiative to build an open, safe and interoperable web of AI agents.

The challenge invites developers, researchers, startups, businesses and students to build publicly accessible, interconnected agentic websites. Entrants can also develop the technologies and standards that let agents discover and work with one another in a safe, trusted and reliable way.

The first contest runs on DevPost until 11th January 2027. A $13,000 prize fund will recognize outstanding contributions, with winners announced at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2027. Additional organizations are invited to join as collaborators.

AI agents are beginning to discover services, communicate, negotiate and transact on the web on behalf of people and organizations. The infrastructure that will determine how these agents find one another, establish trust and exchange value is still taking shape.

Today, personal AI agents are largely confined to the platforms on which they are built. Without open standards, that isolation could deepen, making it harder for people and businesses to connect them to the services they use. This challenge explores an alternative where people can choose their own agents, organizations can make their services agent-discoverable, and independently developed agents can interact across platforms.

Rather than requiring an entirely new network, the challenge builds on the web that already exists, including familiar technologies such as HTML and JavaScript. It aims to test practical approaches to discovery, identity, multi-agent orchestration, portable agent programs, transactions and governance.

The Open Agentic Web challenge invites developers, researchers, startups, businesses and students worldwide to build and test open components of the agentic web on…

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