OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted this year could be the year the first “agents” – a set of artificial intelligence tools that can perform tasks on their own – “enter the workforce.” . Investors whose job it is to support new technologies before they become popular are taken aback by the promises of these digital colleagues.
The rise of agents provides fertile ground for a select group of startups to establish themselves as frontrunners of this change. In that spirit, Business Insider reviewed data from press releases, news articles, and pitch books from startups looking to use agents in a variety of sectors. Filtered for companies that have raised funding. is a list of 20 startups that could scale this year on the back of new funding.
“If 2024 is the year of LLMs, we believe 2025 will be the year of agent AI,” said Praveen Akkiraju, managing director at Insight Partners, which works on agent plays such as Writer, Jasper, and Torq.
The last wave of artificial intelligence brought us co-pilots, a type of virtual assistant designed to work side-by-side with users. Some people write code, some write summaries of meetings and emails, and some transcribe notes on behalf of doctors. The co-pilot still requires a human to hold his hand, but it greatly increases productivity and efficiency.
Since this breakthrough, a new generation of virtual assistants has emerged. Agent describes artificial intelligence that can complete tasks with little to no human supervision. They don’t just help, they take responsibility. Agents can break down complex tasks into smaller subtasks, make decisions, execute plans, and adjust their approach based on the results.
Here’s a quick look at the differences: Co-pilots can help create customized vacation itineraries, while agents can take things further, like booking flights, booking hotels, and arranging activities. No user intervention is required at every step. .
Given the significant investment in agent models by Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, and the ensuing investor excitement surrounding the technology, it’s clear that agents are the darling of the season. PitchBook data shows startups looking to leverage agents raised $8.2 billion in 2024.
Jill Chase, a partner at Alphabet Inc.’s growth fund Capital G, said the software infrastructure that enables agents’ work “is going to see explosive growth.” Aaron Jacobson, a partner at NEA and an early investor in Databricks, said companies will widely deploy agents to “have a real impact on their business.” Seema Amble, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, suggested that agents will change the way professionals use software.
“In the short term, human employees will be the reviewers in the loop,” said Amble, an enterprise software investor. “In the future, as trust is established over time, we expect many of the data-driven actions to move entirely to a narrow set of task-driven agents.”
Below is a list of agent startups that raised rounds of $25 million or more but less than $75 million in 2024, ranked from least to most.
