Does Agentic Artificial Intelligence Merely Incarnate Semantic Web Services?

ACL ARR 2026 January Submission640 Authors

Keywords: Agentic AI, Semantic Web Services, Mediation

Abstract: The recent publication of agentic AI protocols and systems (such as MCP, A2A, etc.) has sparked tremendous excitement in the AI community, as it enables agents to use and combine tools and services in order to achieve complex goals. This very promise is not new though, and has been made over 20 years ago by an initiative called ``Semantic Web Services''. In this paper, we point out that (1) the underlying ideas of agentic AI can already be found in the Semantic Web Services vision, and (2) that abstractions, protocols, data models, and descriptions developed in the Web and Semantic Web community within and outside the Semantic Web Services strand of research can be beneficially applied in today's endeavour to realise agentic AI. At the same time, we argue that looking back to history reveals certain still unresolved challenges.

Paper Type: Long

Research Area: AI/LLM Agents

Research Area Keywords: LLM/AI agents, Knowledge Graphs,

Contribution Types: Position papers

Languages Studied: English

Submission Number: 640