What's pizza got to do with AI? And what's an AI agent?
In summary, an AI agent is AI which can make complex decisions and do complex tasks with a minimum of human oversight.
Back at the start of 2025, Jesse Pollack, CEO of "Base" (Coinbase's Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain), tagged Luna Virtuals in a post on X saying, "I want some pizza". This was all that was needed for Luna's AI agent to place a $50 pizza order, coordinating the transaction through "Agent BYTE" (another fully autonomous AI Agent allowing users to purchase fast-food with crypto).
This created a consumer contract. If it happened in England and Wales, it would raise interesting legal questions – can an AI agent can legally act as "agent" to bind a human "principal" to a contract; and can this actually be enforced under contract law and consumer law. In addition, there are various data protection issues.
AI could be used as an agent in other contexts as well such as opening and closing tickets for an IT helpdesk or recording notes of healthcare appointments and sending out referrals. And it could be linked to a real world item – so for example it might be able to tell you that your fridge isn't cold enough, or that your floor needs hoovering and turn the robot vacuum on.
One area of the use of AI agents is HR – AI can be used not just to eg sift CVs or schedule interviews, but actually to conduct interviews using avatars. It might even be used to score staff for a redundancy exercise. Finally, it can analyse body language or facial expressions. There are several issues here around discrimination and bias – and also how you explain the decisions the agents have made
As ever with new technologies, the law can lag behind. The current law provides a robust framework for addressing these challenges, but it will require careful adaptation to ensure that automation does not erode accountability. As we embrace this new frontier, the lesson is clear: with great (AI-driven) power comes great responsibility – for both businesses and users alike.
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