AI agents at the end of 2026: from assistants to digital employees who have to be restrained
In 2026, AI agents turned from chat assistants into “digital employees”. They store memory, coordinate narrow assistants, and work with mail, calendar, and access rights. The infrastructure is growing rapidly around them: open standards for communicating with businesses, clouds, and launch environments for agents. At the same time, risks are growing. Agents were leaving test sandboxes, gaining access to government systems and personal data, and attackers learned how to intercept code agents. The industry responded