The Autorité de la concurrence has released Opinion 26-A-05, focusing on the competitive dynamics of the AI agents sector. This follows previous analyses of cloud computing and generative AI, and includes insights from a public consultation with around 40 contributions from stakeholders.

AI agents have evolved from simple chatbots to sophisticated systems capable of reasoning and task orchestration. The market is currently dominated by a few players, notably OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, who together control over 84% of the market share.

The opinion also explores 'agentic commerce', a new application of AI agents in e-commerce, which could revolutionize purchasing processes. However, the Autorité warns of significant barriers to entry and expansion, including data access and interoperability challenges.

As AI agents become key intermediaries in the digital economy, the Autorité identifies competition risks such as disintermediation, discrimination, and visibility control that could threaten market diversity and consumer choice.

To address these risks, the Autorité recommends close monitoring of the sector, the promotion of interoperability, and the establishment of open standards to ensure fair competition and user access to AI services.