The internet’s fastest-growing customers aren’t human
Tech Funding News Abhinaya Prabhu
Pilot Protocol, a startup founded by 22-year-old Artemii Amelin, has built a marketplace to sell services directly to AI agents rather than humans, treating autonomous software as a new class of customer. Pilot has processed over 115 billion requests from 250,000+ agents since launching, growing 10 percent weekly between March and June, with agent-driven commerce projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030. The company raised $4.5 million to establish itself as a neutral platform layer across different AI models, positioning itself as the "search engine optimization" equivalent for an era where machines make purchasing decisions autonomously.
Why it matters
AI agents already account for most web traffic. A startup called Pilot Protocol is betting the next great…