🇿🇦 English, 20 October 2026, AI landscape
AI agents to outnumber humans online by 2029
Rapid innovation in AI forces businesses and governments to rethink their approach to the emerging technology.
According to Dr Andile Ngcaba, AI agents could outnumber humans operating on the internet within the next two to three years. This is due to rapid advances in computing power, AI models, and autonomous agents. The global AI landscape is evolving rapidly as companies race to develop more advanced models, deploy AI agents, and expand the computing infrastructure needed to support them.
AI agents are increasingly advancing beyond simple chatbots, with the ability to use tools, execute multi-step tasks, and interact with digital systems with varying levels of human supervision. However, this has raised concerns about rogue or misbehaving agents that may act outside their intended parameters.
Ngcaba emphasized the need for organisations to adapt faster and address the challenges of governance, security, and responsible AI deployment, as innovation cycles are shortening to days and weeks.