How can Europe prepare for the autonomous AI agent economy?

Autonomous AI agents are a new general-purpose layer of the digital economy – reshaping how companies operate, how startups scale and how value is created across sectors.

This session clarifies what AI agents are and how they are transforming the economy by shifting from isolated AI-driven tasks to fully autonomous systems that can plan, act and coordinate at scale.

The discussion focusses on how Europe can prepare to lead in the emerging AI agent economy – rather than just follow. Moving beyond regulation-only debates, the session explores how to build a thriving environment for AI agents, mobilise capital and talent, align industrial and digital strategies and articulate a shared European vision combining policy coherence, market scale and technological ambition. The goal is to identify concrete policy and strategic actions, at both EU and Member State level, to turn autonomous AI agents into a driver of productivity, innovation and long-term economic leadership.