The Future

Intelligent software agents have the potential to become one of the central components for the future information society. Although the developers of intelligent agents have primarily concentrated on the technologies and concepts, a change can be seen with the concentration on the commercial usage scenarios and service models. The technological basis for the commercial use of agent-based systems has been prepared. However, the final success of intelligent agents will largely depend on the acceptance of the new technologies by the end-user. Two complementary problem areas should be mentioned in this connection. A wide acceptance of intelligent agents is possible only when the social, ethical and legal reservations associated with the use of intelligent agent have become accepted, and also a wide range of agent-based services are available that provide direct benefits for the end-user.