In Brief

Scientists worldwide are working to develop a technology that relieves people of the task of processing data distributed throughout the Internet and other networks. The agents involved are intelligent software units that know the preferences and desires of their owners, support them in their search for information and, when necessary, represent them
In the future, agents will plan trips, reserve rental cars, bid at auctions or help job seekers find employmentand they will do all this completely autonomously, and without the need for constant instructions from those whom they work for
Using agent technology, companies will be able to automate activities such as brokerage services, financial administration and customer service, thereby reducing costs. Internet surfers, conference participants or sales consultants who are unable to be present at a specific location will send their "avatars" out into networks. These virtual representatives will then take part in chats, negotiate with business partners or play with children
Agent technology is very complex and the market is still new and not very well organized. There are few general standards. Independent, commercial products are therefore still scarce. Siemens is working on some promising projects that have progressed very far, such as those for tourism, the services sector (insurance, banks) and the labor market

The University of California at Berkeley plays a particularly large role in the development of mobile agents
The Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is integrating agent technology into TV and the Internet (agents.www.media.mit.edu/ groups/agents). Pattie Maes, a pioneer in the field, works with electronic marketplaces and agents in mobile terminals as well as addressing social aspects
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Agent technologies are made available in many colleges and at over 60 research centers. The main focus is on e-commerce: for example, purchasing and sales agents, yellow page agents, agents for customer inquiries (www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/index.html)
Stanford University, California, provides agent functions as a package in a Java application or an applet. Researchers are also working on agent communication (cdr.stanford.edu/html/NextLink/NextLink.html)
The Artificial Intelligence Research Group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Great Britain, is working on knowledge-based systems, multi-agent systems and adaptive machines