From Attention to Intention: AI’s Web Reset Opportunity

According to Financial Times News, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee believes artificial intelligence offers a “unique opportunity to hit the reset button” on the internet’s current problems. He advocates transforming the online “attention economy,” where corporations monetize user time, into an “intention economy” serving individual needs while preserving privacy. Berners-Lee’s company Inrupt is developing an AI agent called Charlie and commercializing the Solid protocol that enables users to control their own data pods. Meanwhile, the $500 million Project Liberty initiative, backed by businessman Frank McCourt, has developed a decentralized social networking protocol used by approximately 14 million people through 170 partner organizations. The EU’s planned introduction of digital identity wallets by the end of 2026 presents another opportunity to strengthen individual data rights. This emerging infrastructure shift warrants careful analysis.

The Technical Architecture of Sovereignty

The fundamental challenge in transitioning from attention to intention economics lies in protocol design rather than application development. Current web architecture inherently centralizes power because HTTP and related protocols were designed for client-server relationships, not peer-to-peer sovereignty. What makes protocols like Solid and DSNP revolutionary isn’t their user interfaces but their underlying data structures that treat personal information as sovereign territory rather than extractable resource. This represents a complete inversion of the current model where users are products and data is the currency. The technical implementation determines whether AI agents will serve individual interests or corporate objectives, making protocol-level decisions more consequential than application features.

The Corporate Gravity Problem

Despite promising alternatives, the economic inertia favoring centralized AI development cannot be underestimated. Major tech companies possess three critical advantages: massive training datasets, computational infrastructure, and established distribution channels. Their business models depend on data consolidation, creating inherent resistance to decentralized approaches that would fragment their most valuable asset. The transition to intention economics faces what I’ve termed the “adoption valley of death”—where promising protocols struggle to achieve critical mass against network effects that reinforce existing platforms. Even if technically superior, decentralized systems must overcome the convenience and interoperability that users have come to expect from integrated ecosystems.

Policy as Infrastructure Accelerant

The EU’s digital identity wallet initiative and AI Act represent more than regulation—they’re potential market creators for intention-based systems. By establishing standardized identity frameworks, regulators can effectively build the on-ramps for decentralized protocols to connect with mainstream services. This mirrors how India’s India Stack created public infrastructure that enabled private innovation. The critical success factor will be whether these frameworks remain truly open and interoperable rather than becoming new walled gardens under different branding. Policy can catalyze change, but only if technical implementation preserves the sovereignty principles behind the vision.

The Personal AI Agent Dilemma

Berners-Lee’s concept of a personal AI agent working solely for user interests raises fascinating questions about AI alignment at the individual level. Unlike corporate AI designed to optimize engagement or conversion, personal agents would need alignment with often-contradictory human values: health versus convenience, savings versus enjoyment, privacy versus connection. The technical challenge of creating agents that understand nuanced personal contexts exceeds current capabilities. Furthermore, the economic model for developing and maintaining such agents remains unclear—will they be subscription services, open source projects, or publicly funded utilities? Each approach carries different implications for accessibility and alignment.

The Bridge from Vision to Reality

The most significant hurdle may be the transition period where users must maintain presence across both traditional and intention-based systems. Early adopters of decentralized social platforms have experienced the fragmentation problem firsthand—managing multiple identities and missing network effects. For the average user, the switching costs remain prohibitive until intention-based systems achieve feature parity with established platforms. The solution likely lies in bridging technologies that allow gradual migration rather than abrupt transitions. Projects focusing on interoperability between centralized and decentralized systems may prove more immediately practical than attempts to replace existing infrastructure entirely.

A Gradual Transformation Scenario

Based on historical technology transitions, the shift to intention economics will likely occur incrementally rather than disruptively. We should expect hybrid models to emerge first, where traditional platforms incorporate elements of user control through regulatory pressure or competitive necessity. The development of standardized communication protocols for data portability will enable gradual migration paths. Successful implementation will depend on solving real user problems rather than ideological purity—decentralized systems must offer tangible benefits beyond philosophical alignment. The organizations that succeed will be those that understand this transition as an evolution requiring bridges between old and new paradigms, not just revolutionary replacements.