Oxylabs

The Missing Layer in Agentic AI — Giedrius Šteimantas, Oxylabs

Aug 26, 2026 · 15:04

Giedrius Šteimantas of Oxylabs argues the missing layer in agentic AI is web scraping infrastructure, applying ten years of scraping rules to make agents cheaper and more reliable. His friend's shopping agent used a browser for everything, hit CAPTCHAs, and wasted tokens. Rebuilding it, he replaces discovery's browser and fixed retailer list with Oxylabs' fast search API (under 2,000 tokens, under 700 milliseconds), and the decision stage with a scraper API that returns markdown, fails loudly, runs hundreds of parallel requests, and bills only for successful results. Checkout needs a browser, so Playwright MCP connects to Oxylabs' headless browser with stealth, residential proxy, and geolocation. Cost matters: use a browser only when necessary, validate content—HTTP 200 does not mean valid.

How Web Data Infrastructure Powers the Next Generation of AI — Patricija Žemaitytė, Oxylabs

Aug 14, 2026 · 19:03

Oxylabs' Patricija Žemaitytė argues infrastructure, not better models, will power the next generation of AI, citing three client-driven projects. A video API built on a two-week deadline and a 5-petabytes-per-month floor expanded into transcripts, subtitles, search, and metadata; client had 30 petabytes and still hadn't paid. A search API rebuilt for subsecond latency and zero data retention got blocked live on a demo call, then reached 550 milliseconds average from a 4-second baseline by trimming layouts, parsers, sessions, and proxies. Scaling the web unblocker from 10,000 to 60,000 requests per second stalled at 20,000 in load testing because telemetry became part of the load, and the follow-up is already Project 150. The lesson: this is not a build-once business but an adapt-forever one.