In every major phase of the web, patterns matter. They help people move from abstract trends to practical things they can actually build. That was true in the early Web 2.0 era, and I think it’s true again now with the agentic web.
One of the sections people have responded to most in my newly released Agentic Web Playbook is the set of “core patterns for AI on websites” that I outline there. As I noted in the playbook, these four core patterns show what to initially build on the agentic web (I also wrote about the why and the how, in separate sections). Because the agentic web is still early, with key standards and platforms still being developed, this is very much a transition stage. So half the battle is knowing what you can build to get started.
There’s an old web maxim that I always point to no matter what phase of the internet we’re in: learn by doing. The best way to learn a set of web technologies is to actually use them, even if they’re not mature yet. That’s why I included these patterns; they provide a practical entry point into the agentic web.
This idea takes me back to the early Web 2.0 era, when I was also trying to understand a new phase of the web through patterns.
My Web 2.0 patterns story
In 2005, I was contracted by O’Reilly Media to write a book about the then-nascent “Web 2.0” trend. My co-writer on the project was Joshua Porter, a web designer, and our goal was not only to explain Web 2.0, but to outline the emerging “design patterns for Web 2.0.” Unfortunately, the book was cancelled in early 2006, so our project never got to see the light of day.
Later, in November 2006, O’Reilly released a 100-page report by John Musser, Web 2.0: Principles and Best Practices. It was more business-focused than the design-patterns outline Josh and I had been working on, but it addressed a similar need: helping people understand the practical patterns behind a new web era.
One of the primary sections of John’s report was the “Eight Core Patterns” of Web 2.0, which were based on Tim O’Reilly’s main talking points for Web 2.0. I won’t go through all eight patterns here, but the first one captured the spirit of the era: “harnessing collective intelligence.” It was described by John as follows:
“Create an architecture of participation that uses network effects and algorithms to produce software that gets better the more people use it.”
As exemplars of that pattern, John’s report listed Google, Wikipedia, Flickr, Amazon and del.icio.us. Flickr’s “architecture of participation” was probably the easiest of those five for other businesses to copy and implement on their own websites: create a site that encourages users to upload something valuable, such as photos, and then make it easy for others to comment on, share, tag, and organize those contributions.
You get the idea. This and the other seven Web 2.0 patterns were a guide to getting started in a new era of the internet. Let a thousand Flickrs bloom, to twist another common Web 2.0 refrain.
Agentic web patterns: starter for 10
Now, I don’t claim that my agentic web patterns are as polished as John’s Web 2.0 patterns. By the time his report came out, it had been over two years since the first Web 2.0 Conference was held. So the patterns for that era had matured, at least a little. My sense is that the agentic web is currently where Web 2.0 was in 2004: early, messy, exciting, but not yet fully legible. Some of the key technologies — including WebMCP and on-device AI — are still emerging, and are not yet widely available to everyday web users.
That said, here are my four core patterns for the agentic web circa early-2026:
- On-site assistants
— Add embedded AI assistants to your website to help users ask questions, explore content, and find relevant next steps. - Hybrid AI systems: local + cloud
— Combine on-device and API-based models to balance performance, cost, privacy, and control. - Agent interaction: MCP-style capabilities
— Expose structured actions and data so AI agents can interact with your site programmatically. - AI as the interface layer
— Let AI become a conversational layer on top of your site, so users can search, navigate, and act through intent rather than fixed menus and links.
Underneath all four patterns is a shared requirement: machine-readable structure. Your content needs to be accessible, well-structured, and understandable to AI systems; without that foundation, these patterns have little reliable material to work with.
These agentic web patterns will expand and solidify over time, just as Web 2.0 patterns did. But even now, they offer a practical starting point for bringing AI into your website, product, or app.
If you’re interested in exploring these patterns in more depth, you can request my Agentic Web Playbook and I’ll send you a copy:
Photo credit: Phil Hearing on Unsplash