Author: Tong; Translated by: Vernacular Blockchain

Agent gold rush is ushering in its moment of truth. As capital tightens and attention fades, the market is enforcing a simple rule: Agents must be practical, not just possible. Every agent now faces two basic tests:

"Will I use this?"

"Are ordinary people (not just technology enthusiasts) really using this?" This trough cycle is natural choice, eliminating products that cannot solve practical problems. Survivors won’t be the most technically impressive, but the products that really fit into users’ lives.

01 The inevitability of aggregation The arrival of OpenAI's proxy API and Anthropic's model context protocol (MCP) marks a powerful transition to integration. The era of decentralized tools is over. These two technologies share the same core vision: aggregate everything.

1. Unified data access: MCP eliminates the need to integrate separately with each data source. A protocol can connect any AI to any information, whether it is your document, database or real-time data stream.

2. Concentrated capability: The proxy API integrates the functions that previously required multiple components - reasoning, tool usage, network access, document search - into a single endpoint to automatically handle complex tasks. This is not just technological evolution, but a collapse of artificial obstacles. The complex proxy ecosystem is being simplified into an aggregation layer, bringing everything together in one place and one interface.

02 Market Paradox

"Agent Market" never makes sense for practical agents. The failure of the GPT store is not accidental, but inevitable. No one wants to constantly switch different agents when a specific utility is needed. However, Character.AI is thriving with almost the same market model. The difference lies in purpose. When personality becomes a product rather than just a packaging, the market suddenly becomes meaningful. People access Character.AI not for practical purposes, but for connections, for the proxy itself. Destination and tool are combined into one. This reveals the fundamental differentiation of the agency economy:

Practical agents must be integrated into the "backend" workflow

Personal agents must stand out as a "front desk" destination

Personalization: a sustainable moat

As agent capabilities become infrastructure, what is defensible? Not technology, but connection:

1. Visual identity that delivers a sense of belonging

2. Voice mode that triggers a sense of familiarity

3. Knowledge that reflects your background

4. Personality that is consistent with your preferences Each interaction deepens practicality and connectivity—creating compound value that cannot be replicated through functionality.

03Embedded Future: The Rise of Agent Products

The collision of standardized infrastructure and personalization is not to create better agents, but to create agent products. This distinction is crucial. Manus.im is a classic example of this evolution. It does not position itself as an “agent platform” but as a productivity companion that seamlessly integrates into existing workflows. The model itself is not striking—it quietly enhances human capabilities through tasks such as email drafting, meeting summary and information retrieval. Manus’ attraction is not novelty, but stealth—it removes the boundaries between tools and assistants. It embodies the core principle that practical agents succeed by integrating into workflows. By focusing on user productivity rather than technology show-off, Manus grasps the essence of the post-hype phase: the real utility of getting users back every day. This is the embedded future: Agents are no longer independent entities, but seamlessly integrate agent features into product DNA:

Invisible infrastructure: Integrate technology that is familiar with workflows

Situous intelligence: a system that understands your unique situation

Relationship-centric design: Learn and adapt to your preferred interface Independent agents will be the relic of early experiments—just like navigation becoming an independent GPS device before smartphone features. Winners will create agent products that completely dissolve the boundaries between tools and assistants.

04Holoworld's strategic vision

When others pursue text interfaces, Holoworld recognizes a fundamental truth: humans make connections through visual narratives. Two insights distinguish our approach: Production rather than generation: Instead of pursuing one-time novelty, we build a complete pipeline to produce beautiful assets that can be distributed

Relationships are better than practical: Our personalized visual/voice agent creates a front-end that captures emotional connections while delegating practicality to a modular back-end For creators, this democratizes the work that once required teams and budgets. For brands, this enables digital ambassadors that make real connections. At Holoworld, we are pioneering a future where these trends merge. Our Agent Studio creates visual AI companions with unique personalities that generate broadcast-quality video from simple prompts while serving as the perfect interface for powerful AI capabilities such as web search, data analysis and task automation. Users aren’t just getting help – they build relationships with characters they really like. This is exactly where the entire market is going: intelligence is reflected in the partner you connect with, not the tools you need to learn.

05 Summary

The hype cycle has come to an end. Technical barriers are collapsing. The question is no longer “Can we build?” but “Will anyone care?” Winners don’t launch the most agents, but create experiences that are so useful that they become invisible—the complexity disappears and the possibility remains. The market has spoken out. Practicality over possibility.