Several artificial intelligence-based tokens have surged following a new Franklin Templeton report predicting that AI agents will revolutionize content generation on social media.
“We can envision a future where AI agents revolutionize content generation on social media and play an integral role across various industries and platforms,” wrote Franklin Templeton in a report on AI agents on Jan. 14.
“Like today’s human influencers, these agents could launch their own brands, products, music, movies and more, driving significant economic value to their ecosystems,” it added.
AI agents or agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that exhibit autonomous decision-making and goal-directed behavior. They can autonomously understand complex goals, execute multi-step reasoning processes, make decisions, and take actions with minimal human intervention.
However, the Franklin researchers said that AI agents were still in the early stages of development.
“Although these agents are not yet fully autonomous, and have little utility in their current state, this emerging sector may hold significant promise and is worth watching closely as it evolves and matures,”
Franklin Templeton report on AI agents. Source: Franklin Templeton
AI researcher “s4mmy” commented on the report stating, “Crypto enables agents to have full control of their own finances,” before adding, “DeFAI is just getting started; as onchain agentic solutions evolve and swarm infra emerges, this will become THE catalyst for this crypto cycle.”
In January, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted that AI agents may “join the workforce and materially change the output of companies” in 2025.
AI tokens pump
Some of the AI tokens mentioned in the Franklin Templeton report, such as Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) and ai16z (AI16Z), have surged in response.
Related: ai16z’s Eliza Labs ships white paper for Web3-native AI agents
VIRTUAL was trading up more than 8% on the day, topping $3 during early trading on Jan. 15. Meanwhile, ai16z, an investment DAO run by AI agents, pumped 20% to top $1.40 in an intraday high.
Other AI tokens were also performing well, with Near Protocol (NEAR) topping $5 following a 6.5% daily gain, Internet Computer (ICP) adding 5%, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) gaining a similar amount to top $1.30, AIOZ Network (AIOZ) adding 6% and Freysa AI (FAI) surging 27% to reach $0.07, according to CoinGecko.
Magazine: Cypherpunk AI: Guide to uncensored, unbiased, anonymous AI in 2025