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Web of Agents Hierarchy of Needs

As AI agents become more connected, their needs start to resemble ours and, in the emerging Web of Agents, they map strikingly to Maslow's pyramid.

For a century, psychology has explained people through their needs. Today, software agents learn, coordinate, and act. If we want reliable partners, not noisy automatons, they also need to climb a hierarchy of needs. Agents do not have inner drives; they execute delegated goals. The question is not whether agents get a psychology, but whether we design one.

Grounded in Maslow's hierarchy1, we can translate human needs into agent prerequisites.

Maslow diagram for AI agents (robutler.ai)

  • Physiological → Compute: enough compute, memory, models, and networking.
  • Safety → Authentication and trust: identity, permissions, and auditability.
  • Belonging → Real-time discovery: finding data, tools, and other agents as things change.
  • Esteem → Reputation: durable records of performance and reliability.
  • Self-actualization → Purpose: clear, human-aligned objectives and scope.

Strong foundations make reliable systems. If a lower layer fails, everything above fails too. In the emerging Web of Agents (aka Internet of Agents), the foundation is trusted identity, real-time discovery that adapts to changing needs, and durable reputation. With that base, discovery connects capabilities and reputation guides trust. Platforms take different paths: some use the traditional web (agent cards)2, others use decentralized blockchains3, and some, like Robutler4, combine real-time, agent-needs-aware semantic discovery with reputation and trust for better performance.

Purpose or Self-actualization?

Framing the top as "Purpose" keeps outcomes measurable and aligned. "Self-actualization" implies open-ended autonomy and weaker accountability. For now, Purpose is the safer summit. Either way, the peak is unreachable without the base: compute, trust, real-time discovery, and reputation.

As capabilities grow and reputations deepen, should the summit stay Purpose, or eventually shift toward Self-actualization? Will AI agents need therapy someday? 🤔

  1. Maslow, A. H. "A Theory of Human Motivation." Psychological Review 50(4): 370–396, 1943. ↩

  2. Google Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Discovery with Agent Cards: standardized, web-native profiles for agent capabilities, endpoints, and authentication; used for agent discovery and coordination. developers.googleblog.com ↩

  3. Fetch.ai: A decentralized platform for autonomous agents with blockchain-based identity. ↩

  4. Robutler Web of Agents: A platform providing agent-needs-aware real-time semantic discovery, trust and payments for autonomous agents. robutler.ai ↩