This weekly update brings exciting news about how AI agents are changing the business world. AI agents are intelligent computer programs that can make decisions and complete tasks all by themselves without needing a person to click buttons for every single step. This technology is moving from just being something companies experiment with to becoming real tools that help businesses every single day.

The biggest news this week came on October 21st, when Serval announced it raised $47 million to build AI agents for IT work. IT stands for "Information Technology," which is basically the computer and technology part of a business. Serval's goal is to help companies automate boring, repetitive tasks like giving people new computers or allowing them to use new software. What makes Serval special is how they use two different AI agents that work as a team. Think of it like this: one agent is the designer who creates the tools and decides what other agents are allowed to do. The second agent is the helper who uses those pre-made tools to answer questions from employees. This system is safer because the helper agent cannot do anything the designer agent did not approve.

Serval's investors include Redpoint Ventures and famous companies like First Round and General Catalyst. But what made investors most excited was not just the ideas—it was that Serval already works with impressive companies like Perplexity, which is an AI search company, and Together AI. Having real customers using your product is one of the best ways to show that your idea actually works.

The second major story is about LangChain, a company that helps people build AI agents, reaching an incredible goal. LangChain became what people call a "unicorn company," which means it is now worth $1.25 billion. That is a fancy way of saying it is very valuable. LangChain started in 2022 as a free project that anyone could use and change called open-source software. Millions of programmers liked it so much that the founder, Harrison Chase, started a real company around it. In just a few years, it grew from $10 million to a billion dollars in value. On the day of this announcement, LangChain released new tools to make it even easier for developers to build AI agents.

What do these two big announcements tell us? They show that investors truly believe AI agents will transform how work gets done. Companies are putting billions of dollars into this technology because they think it will make businesses work better and faster. For startup founders reading this, there is an important lesson: the winning strategy is not to build every possible AI feature, but to pick one real problem your customers have and solve it with an AI agent. Instead of saying "our product is now AI-powered," successful startups ask questions like "What makes work slower for our customers?" and "What tasks waste the most time?" The companies growing the fastest are those using AI agents to fit into how people already work, not trying to change everything at once.

Experts at startup conferences this week also shared important ideas about building AI agent companies. They explained that the old way of thinking about AI software does not work anymore. Instead of building a tool that people use, companies are now building autonomous teammates—software that you manage like you would manage an employee. These AI agents work more on their own, which means people have to spend less time watching them and giving them instructions. The most successful AI agent companies have focused on specific industries instead of trying to solve problems for everyone. For example, one healthcare company that started by trying to automate all medical tasks changed its focus to just automating claims for dental offices, and suddenly had much better success.

The message to new startup founders is clear: AI agents are not science fiction anymore, they are real tools that real companies are using right now. If you are thinking about starting a company around AI agents, pick your customers carefully, solve their biggest problem first, and make sure your AI agent works reliably before trying to do too much. The startups that will win are those that think like managers solving real workplace problems, not like scientists building the fanciest AI technology.