The Week When AI Agents Started Playing as a Team

This week in late December 2025 marked an important turning point in how artificial intelligence agents work together. Instead of each AI agent working by itself, companies and organizations are now creating systems where multiple AI agents cooperate on tasks, just like teammates on a sports squad.

The most significant announcement came with the official launch of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF). This organization was created on December 9, 2025, to help all the different AI companies work together better. It includes powerful tech companies from around the world, including OpenAI and Anthropic from the United States. The foundation is part of the Linux Foundation, which is a well-known organization that helps create rules for open-source software. The goal is to make sure that AI agents built by different companies can understand each other and share information smoothly.

Making AI Agents Speak the Same Language

One of the biggest breakthroughs this week involved a tool called the Model Context Protocol, or MCP. Think of MCP as a universal translator for AI agents. Before MCP existed, each AI company had its own way of making agents talk to each other. This made it very difficult to create systems where agents from different companies could cooperate. MCP solves this problem by giving everyone the same language to use.

The numbers show how important MCP has become: by November 2025, there were over 10,000 active MCP servers online. This means thousands of businesses are using MCP to help their AI agents work together. Anthropic, another top AI company, also announced on December 18 that it was opening up its Agent Skills specification. This allows any company to create special skills for AI agents that can be shared with other companies' agents. It is similar to how anyone can write an application for an iPhone phone because Apple opened up the rules for creating apps.

Businesses Are Betting Big Money on Agent Teams

Companies around the world are putting serious money into these teamwork tools. A report from Menlo Ventures showed that businesses spent a stunning $37 billion on AI agent systems in 2025, which is 3.2 times more than the year before. Even more impressive is that over half of this money (about $19 billion) went directly to building actual AI agent applications that companies can use right now. This shows that businesses are not just experimenting anymore—they are seriously investing in AI agents that work as teams.

A survey from PwC found that 79% of companies worldwide are already using AI agents. That is almost 8 out of every 10 businesses. This means that AI agents working together are not something for the future—they are happening right now in offices, hospitals, and stores around the world.

Why Teams Beat Solo Players

Scientists have discovered something important: multiple specialized AI agents work much better together than one super-powerful agent. Anthropic's research showed that when you have a lead agent that tells other specialized agents what to do, they perform 90% better on hard tasks than a single agent trying to do everything by itself. This makes sense if you think about real jobs. A hospital would not hire one super-doctor to do surgery, deliver babies, fix broken bones, and treat diseases. Instead, hospitals hire different doctors who specialize in different areas, and they work together as a team.

New Tools for Agent Cooperation

Big technology companies announced several new systems this week for helping AI agents cooperate. Google introduced a powerful new coding tool called Antigravity. This tool uses AI agents that can write code, test it, and even control web browsers to check if the code works—all without a human having to watch over them. Adobe partnered with a company called Runway to add AI video generation to its creative software. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, and NVIDIA partnered to create AI agents that can defend computer networks together across many different locations. Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud announced they would work together to make sure AI agents are safe and secure.

The Challenge Ahead

Despite all this excitement, experts warn about a real problem: many AI agent teams fail when they leave testing and face real-world situations. A research paper from Stanford and Harvard universities explains why AI systems that look amazing when demonstrated often completely break down when actual customers try to use them. This challenge is one of the biggest problems that AI companies must solve before AI agents become truly reliable teammates.

Looking Forward

The developments of this week show that the age of AI agents working alone is ending. The future belongs to teams of specialized AI agents that cooperate with each other, share information through standard tools like MCP, and are governed by organizations like the Agentic AI Foundation. While challenges remain, billions of dollars in investment and the backing of the world's biggest tech companies suggest that AI agent teamwork is here to stay and will only get better.