Podcast Summary

London Real – "Raghu Bala: The Internet of AI Agents Is Coming And It Will Change Everything"
Host: Brian Rose
Guest: Raghu Bala, Founder & CEO of Synergetics
Aired: November 7, 2025

Overview

Brian Rose sits down with Raghu Bala, a serial tech entrepreneur and founder of Synergetics, to explore how autonomous AI agents—digital twins, smart devices, and programmable AI—are poised to transform the economy, workplace, and daily life. This deep-dive covers the underlying protocols enabling the agentic ecosystem, real-world enterprise adoption, the crucial role of blockchain, decentralization standards, and the broader implications for productivity, security, and job creation.

Key Topics and Discussion Points

1. The Coming Age of AI Agents and Digital Twins

• Synergetics' Role: Synergetics powers the agent economy, enabling AI agents and digital twins to interact and transact autonomously.

• Vision: In the near future, everyone will have a digital twin capable of acting on their behalf—shopping, booking, managing tasks. Every device—cars, parking meters, appliances—will become an agent.

  • Quote:

    "You and me are going to create our own digital twins. They look like us, they'll talk like us. Your twin could be shopping for you while you are busy doing other things."
    (Raghu Bala, 00:01)

• Analogy: Foundation AI models compared to electricity; agents are the 'appliances' running off this new power source.

  • Quote:

    "Foundation models are like electricity. They give us the building blocks, now what do we do with it? Agents are the first sort of manifestation of that electricity in a kinetic form."
    (Raghu Bala, 05:31)

2. The Agent Economy – Technical Building Blocks

• Four Fundamental Layers for agent interactions:

  1. Identity: Each agent needs a persistent ID.
  2. Registry: Discoverable directory for all agents—akin to a Yellow Pages for AIs.
  3. Wallet: For value and information exchange—supports multi-blockchain (BTC, ETH, Solana, Avax, Base).
  4. A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol: Secure, contextual communication and transactions between agents; vocabulary-specific conversations.

• Patent Story: Raghu awoke "with an epiphany," drafting the basis for Synergetics' agent protocols.

  • Quote:

    "One morning I woke up with this epiphany. I said, oh, I can see the future. The next four hours, I was just feverishly typing all my ideas, which became the patent."
    (Raghu Bala, 09:04)

• Registry of Registries: In partnership with MIT, they're building an 'index of agent registries'—allowing for effortless, scalable discoverability.

• Open Collaboration: Synergetics is working with Google and others to make these protocols standard rather than isolated.

  • Quote:

    "We want to go in the spirit of collaboration because there's no use for multiple standards... It's better to coalesce towards something that everyone will use."
    (Raghu Bala, 15:28)

3. Why Blockchain is Essential for AI Agents

• Instant, Global Microtransactions: Traditional banking is too slow and expensive; blockchain enables sub-cent, real-time, borderless settlements between agents.

  • Quote:

    "You're not going to have a car talking to a parking meter which needs to park now, needs to pay now... you need something which is immediate."
    (Raghu Bala, 17:15)

• Ultra-low Fees: Protocols like 402 bring transaction costs to nearly zero—crucial for scaling agent activity.

• Multi-Chain Support: Synergetics’ wallet is built to work across major chains, supporting the tokenization drive in global finance.

4. Enterprise Adoption and Balancing Decentralization

• Enterprise Realities: Big firms are selective—decentralized compute/data is usually a 'no', but decentralized identity is welcomed for interoperability and scale.

• Agent Interactions: Internal agents will eventually need to interact with 'outside world' agents—necessitating strong, standardized trust and discovery mechanisms (e.g., ERC-8004 Trustless Agents).

  • Quote:

    "There is a sort of epiphany happening where companies are starting to think, oh yeah, we are using agents internally, but soon they'll have to interface with outside agents."
    (Raghu Bala, 24:52)

• Security: Heavy attention to secure protocols, containers, agent verification (KYA: Know Your Agent), and prevention of rogue agents.

5. Market Scale and Real-world Examples

• Massive scale anticipated: MIT predicts 1 trillion future agents (conservatively, 100 billion).

  • Quote:

    "MIT Media Lab ... their number is one trillion. Seven billion people, they think one trillion agents."
    (Raghu Bala, 34:47)

• Devices as Agents: From smartphones to cars (some car brands have shipped with wallets), home appliances, logistics chain trucks, and even sports equipment (e.g., rugby concussion mouthpieces).

  • Quote:

    "All of the devices right now they are called smart devices. They will be agents. All of them are going to be agents. All your cars are going to be agents."
    (Raghu Bala, 36:40)

• Marketplace Launch: Synergetics is building a central marketplace for enterprises, creators, communities, and consumers to buy, sell, and rent agent skills, apps, and other assets (represented as NFTs).

6. AI Agents, Blockchains, and New Standards

• Open Sourcing & Compatibility: Synergetics provides tools (e.g., Agent Wizard) for any agent architecture to interoperate and encourages community standards.

  • Quote:

    "We actually have given away to the ecosystem something called Agent Wizard that gives these agents the same properties that our agents natively have. Id, name, wallet..."
    (Raghu Bala, 30:41)

• Collaboration over Competition: Raghu stresses the importance of interoperability, open standards, and avoiding technological 'islands'. Multiple successful exits inform his focus on collaboration rather than strict IP defense.

7. Tokens, NFTs, and the Future Agent Marketplace

• Synergetics’ Token Utility:

  • Medium of exchange in the agent marketplace.

  • Incentives for creators, skill rental, and the possibility of 'launchpad' events for partners.

  • All marketplace artifacts (skills, agents) are NFTs, making them usable across broader NFT marketplaces.

  • Quote:

    "This agent economy is going to create a lot of new jobs. And for that economy to function in a rational manner, we need a token. And that token will incentivize all of the players to participate."
    (Raghu Bala, 54:43)

8. Industry Growth, Timing, and Regulatory Changes

• Crypto Adoption Accelerates: Major corporations and government adoption is here—removing previous barriers and opening the floodgates to innovation.

  • Quote:

    "I believe soon there'll be a day where companies could launch things within America itself and not be subjected to all kinds of scrutiny."
    (Raghu Bala, 60:47)

• Programmable Money: The true promise of blockchain is being realized—automation, commissions, taxes, splits, and rules directly in the money, administered by AI agents.

• Urgency for Enterprises: Companies that wait may find themselves outpaced rapidly—as AI innovation is moving at the rate of 'Moore's Law in 18 weeks'.

  • Quote:

    "Every company has sort of moved from a human centric workforce to a hybrid workforce made up of humans and agents. And that is not going to change. That train has left the station."
    (Raghu Bala, 77:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:01 | Raghu | "You and me are going to create our own digital twins. They look like us, they’ll talk like us. Your twin could be shopping for you..." | | 09:04 | Raghu | "One morning I woke up with this epiphany... The next four hours, I was just feverishly typing all my ideas, which became the patent." | | 17:15 | Raghu | “You’re not going to have a car talking to a parking meter which needs to park now, needs to pay now... you need something which is immediate.” | | 24:52 | Raghu | "There is a sort of epiphany happening... we are using agents internally, but soon they'll have to interface with outside agents." | | 34:47 | Raghu | "Five trillion [phone calls/year]. MIT Media Lab ... their number is one trillion [agents]." | | 36:40 | Raghu | “All of the devices right now... will be agents. All your cars are going to be agents.” | | 54:43 | Raghu | "...this agent economy is going to create a lot of new jobs. And for that economy to function... we need a token..." | | 77:02 | Raghu | "Every company has... moved from a human centric workforce to a hybrid workforce made up of humans and agents... that train has left the station." |

Important Timestamps

• [00:01] – Raghu on digital twins, the agentic future, device intelligence
• [05:31] – Synergetics analogy with YouTube, agents as electricity’s 'appliance'
• [09:04] – Inception story for A2A protocol & patent
• [16:15] – Why blockchain is essential for agent payments—instant, global, cheap
• [24:52] – B2B collaboration, real friction points, enterprise adoption
• [30:41] – Synergetics’ philosophy: open standards, ecosystem partnerships
• [34:47/36:40] – Market size, devices as agents, Samsung/automotive examples
• [50:01] – Milestones: modular agents, enterprise education, agent marketplace
• [54:43] – Why tokens are vital for the AI agent ecosystem
• [60:47] – Regulatory climate: mainstream adoption, innovation throttle removed
• [77:02] – Companies need to adopt or risk falling irrecoverably behind
• [78:33] – Acceleration: "AI improvement almost doubles every 18 weeks"

Action Steps & Closing Thoughts

• Enterprise Action: Companies (large and small) should move quickly to adopt or at least experiment with agentic AI technology.

  • Quote:

    "It's getting to that point because every company has sort of moved from a human centric workforce to a hybrid workforce made up of humans and agents... It's not even like little, not 10%, 20%. You're talking about 10x in terms of speed..." (Raghu Bala, 77:02)

• Get Involved:

  • Join Synergetics’ webinars
  • Test their sandbox tools and agent wallet
  • Connect via LinkedIn or their website

• Marketplace Launch: End of Q4 2025 / early Q1 2026: Synergetics debuts their AI agent marketplace and token launch.

• Looking Ahead: The Internet of AI Agents is predicted to redefine business, commerce, and personal productivity as fundamentally as the adoption of electricity or the Web itself.

  • Quote:

    "You got to step back and say, you know what? What's going on? Oh, wow, AI has happened... Like, you have to step back and see what just happened here."
    (Raghu Bala, 66:43)

Summary Tone:
Conversational, visionary, technically grounded, and highly collaborative—emphasizing both the disruptive potential and the practical steps toward building an open, agent-driven future.