According to our 2025 developer survey, 23% of developers regularly use AI agents and another 8% use them infrequently. As adoption moves beyond experiments, the very idea of “building online” is shifting from human clicks and forms to intent-driven automation, where agents manage critical tasks like domain ownership and digital identity on our behalf.
In this episode of AppDevANGLE, I spoke with Carlos Armada, Head of Product at name.com, about what it means to become an AI-native registrar, how to design for both developer experience (DX) and agent experience (AX), and why domain management is a logical first frontier for agentic automation.
From Interfaces to Intent
The line between technical and non-technical builders is fading as reasoning-capable agents help anyone turn intent into running apps.
“When I saw the leap to modern reasoning models,” Carlos told me, “I realized the barrier to building had gone down tremendously—on the back of AI agents. It reminded me of the early web… except now we’ve moved from interfaces to intent.”
With agents orchestrating scaffolds, wiring services, and handling setup, the distinction between template users and custom builders blurs. Intent, not UI mastery, becomes the starting point for creation.
Trust, Constraints, and “Proven Rails”
If agents are going to take action on a user’s behalf, trust has to be engineered in from day one.
“Start on proven and trusted rails,” Carlos said. “We manage over 2 million domains, and our API has powered trusted partners for a decade. The question is: how do we embed agents to make it more secure, more reliable, and easier to use?”
He framed it as a dual mandate: build great DX and great AX. “If you’re not building solid products for developers—secure platform, good error handling—you’re not building solid products for agents either.”
name.com is leaning on an ecosystem of experienced partners (Netlify, Vercel, Bolt, Replit) to pressure-test flows, harden OAuth/tokenization, and surface gaps that agents won’t tell you about directly.
Why Domains Are the First Automation Win
Domain management looks simple to end users; but it’s deceptively fussy.
“People think a domain is just a text field,” Carlos said. “In reality you’ve got DNS, SSL, lifecycles, and edge cases. It’s often where launches get stuck—misconfigured DNS, missing certificates—right at the finish line.”
That’s precisely why it’s a strong candidate for agents: finite, predictable workflows that can be curated and automated to high reliability. Legacy stacks (SOAP/XML) make this hard; name.com’s REST/JSON stack maps cleanly to modern agent frameworks. “Our customers are already there—91% expect AI to help manage DNS and domains in the next two years. We need to meet that expectation.”
Meeting Builders Where They Work (Bye, Context Switching)
Agents only help if they eliminate the context switching that drains developer time.
“I told a room of Cursor users,” Carlos said, “that with MCP and our tech, you can purchase and provision a domain from your IDE without leaving your flow.” That shift matters: fewer passwords and portal hops; more time building. “If we promise ease for builders and creators, companies will unlock real value.”
What excites Carlos isn’t just speed; it’s who gets to build. “I see product managers, marketers, and designers shipping changes, even opening PRs. The new builder masters intent, while agents handle the plumbing.”
Designing for the Agentic Web (AX Is a First-Class Citizen)
Treat AI as a stakeholder. That’s the design stance.
“AX (Agent Experience) sits next to DX,” Carlos said. “We need guardrails so agents do only what the user intends. With MCP, you bring your own credentials. We’re working with our developers and partners to find gaps, close holes, and scale safely—whether your agent runs on ChatGPT, Claude, or elsewhere.”
The promise is massive: faster builds, fewer blockers, broader participation. The onus is on product teams to ensure consent, safety, and clarity at every step.
Path to Adoption
For teams exploring agent-led domain and identity workflows:
- Start on modern rails: Prefer REST/JSON and clean auth models; retire brittle SOAP/XML endpoints that agents struggle to use.
- Elevate DX and AX together: Good DX (docs, errors, idempotency) is table-stakes for good AX.
- Codify trust boundaries: Use MCP (or equivalent) with least privilege, scoped credentials, and explicit consent prompts.
- Meet builders in-flow: Bring domain tasks into IDEs and CI so agents can act without forcing context switches.
- Instrument the journey: Log agent actions, track outcomes, and expose explainability so humans remain in control.
Analyst Take
Agentic workflows are moving from novelty to necessity, and domains are the right beachhead: the tasks are repeatable, the blast radius is well understood, and the value of getting it right is immediate: your app actually goes live.
name.com’s pivot to an AI-native registrar highlights three enterprise lessons:
- Trust first, then scale: Put agents on “proven rails” (modern APIs, robust auth, strong error contracts). Instrument everything for accountability.
- Design for AX, not just DX: Agents need the same clarity and guardrails humans do (idempotent operations, predictable errors, least-privilege credentials) so automation is safe by default.
- Reduce friction where it hurts: Eliminating context switching (IDE-native domain provisioning, MCP integrations) converts agent potential into developer productivity, which frees specialists to innovate and enables new builders to participate under governance.
As more organizations adopt intent-driven builders and agentic infrastructure, domain and identity management will become a core automation primitive. Teams that modernize their stacks and codify agent trust boundaries now will ship faster, widen the builder base, and do it safely.
