Zhongguancun Forum | Zhou Hongyi: Intelligent Agents Reshape Industry Landscape, Six Major Directions Nurture New Unicorns

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（Source: NetEase Intelligent）

On March 29, at the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference Global Unicorn Enterprises Conference, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, delivered a keynote speech. Focusing on a new generation of agent technologies represented by “Lobster” (OpenClaw), he systematically expounded on the industry transformation opportunities brought by the accelerated evolution of artificial intelligence.

Zhou Hongyi said that the rise of “Lobster” in 2026 marks the successful “mainstreaming” of agent technology—moving from the geek community to the general public. This not only completes the widespread adoption of agents, but will also drive a comprehensive reshaping of the entire internet infrastructure, the software industry, and even various real-world industries, with massive opportunities embedded in it for nurturing the next generation of unicorns.

First is the reshaping of AI-native infrastructure. Zhou Hongyi pointed out that the current internet system is mainly built around people’s interaction habits. In the age of agents, browsers, search engines, databases, and even account systems all need to shift toward “serving agents.” The process of fully rewriting and reshaping the underlying infrastructure framework itself will give rise to new platform-based companies.

Second is the evolution of the software industry toward “atomicization.” Traditional software that clings to existing models will be hard to sustain. It is shifting from an end-to-end product form toward being more foundational and modular—becoming “skill components” that agents can flexibly call. In this model, software is like “raw materials,” while agents are “chefs” and schedulers that can dynamically combine or even rewrite functions based on needs. Upgrading services without enterprises having to redo their software will fundamentally change the logic of how software is sold and used, thereby reshaping enterprise service forms and spawning the next generation of software giants.

Third is the rise of “custom agents” in vertical industries. Faced with strict requirements for stability, consistency, and determinism in enterprise work, today’s general agents (such as the general “Lobster”) still lean toward tools for geeks and are difficult to directly meet complex standardized, process-oriented business scenarios. At the same time, enterprises generally lack the capability to build proprietary agents, which gives the tailored business of professional agents and vertical industry agents a huge market. This trend will accelerate the deployment of agents in areas such as finance, manufacturing, and government affairs.

Fourth is the emergence of new organizational models such as “one-person companies (OPC).” As agents become widespread as “silicon-based partners” and “digital employees,” the “one-person company” model is set to flourish. Entrepreneurs can use a “digital team” composed of multiple agents to complete complex tasks, achieving higher efficiency with fewer people. In the future, the headcount of unicorn enterprises may decrease by about 10 times compared with today. Commercial innovation around this lightweight, high-output organizational model will reshape the basic logic of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Fifth is the formation of a “machine economy” ecosystem driven by agents. Zhou Hongyi said that in the future, agents will act as a “new species” on the internet and will gradually gain independent account, communication, and even payment systems. They will be able to replace humans to automatically handle information processing and business decision-making, as well as transaction fulfillment. As large numbers of agents coordinate with one another, an ecosystem circle centered on the economy of a dedicated agent is expected to take shape faster.

Sixth is the coordinated upgrade of underlying industries such as computing power and energy. Agent applications that run around the clock will drive compute consumption to grow by a hundredfold or more. This will push the separation of inference compute from training compute, directly giving rise to the independent development of the “inference chip” industry. Meanwhile, massive compute demand will further pass through to the electricity and energy systems, thereby unlocking trillion-level markets across upstream and downstream areas such as supporting power supply, green electricity, nuclear power, and other sectors—forming new growth momentum.

Zhou Hongyi said that artificial intelligence is moving from point breakthroughs to systemic reconstruction, and agents will become an important carrier connecting technological innovation with industrial upgrading. In the future, 360 will continue to increase investment in the Zhongguancun artificial intelligence track, and will deeply develop specific fields such as humanoid robot R&D and AI services. By promoting deep integration between technology and industry, and with an open-and-win mindset to cultivate an innovation ecosystem, we will fully empower individuals and organizations, and work together to incubate more super enterprises of the agent era—driving a new round of unicorns to emerge faster. (Dingxi)

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