AI Agents and the Progressive Intermediation Between Users and Online Services: A Critical Analysis

The disruptive potential of AI agents is becoming increasingly evident, impacting the very nature of the interactions between users and online services and content. Representing a new form of intermediation, these agents are transforming the way users access and interact with online resources, while also reshaping the distribution of informational power, economic value, and access in the digital ecosystem. This paper analyses the evolution of intermediation mechanisms on the internet through a critical, non-systematic review guided by Critical Systems Heuristics. We trace the progressive layering of intermediation mechanisms to online content/services from the technical infrastructures, and we argue that AI agents constitute a structurally distinct intermediation layer that introduces new dynamics of power, opacity, value distribution, and access to the digital ecosystem, with significant implications for users, online services, and the broader society. We are currently crossing a potentially significant evolutionary shift in the Internet, where AI agent intermediation could progressively exert a substantial influence on how information is exchanged. This paper offers a framework with which to discuss the implications of this potential evolution and to guide future research, public discussion, and policy interventions in this area.