Traditional media systems model communication as a linear transfer of static content from author to reader, mediated by largely passive tools. This model enforces rigid separations between creation and consumption, fragments communicative processes, and constrains collaboration as meaning evolves over time. We introduce Agentic Media, a communication paradigm in which media participate in the construction and negotiation of meaning by embedding communicative intent, retaining interactional context, and supporting adaptive engagement. Within this paradigm, communication is reframed as an ongoing process of expression, exploration, interpretation, and reflection, rather than the delivery of finalized artifacts. We articulate the conceptual foundations for reasoning about how communication can be structured when media are treated as active participants in communicative processes. Building on this framing, we outline research opportunities for HCI and AI that shift attention from artifact manipulation toward communication-centric computing. This work aims to broaden how computing supports sustained communication, collaboration, and meaning-making among people in AI-enabled environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Traditional media systems model communication as a linear transfer of static content from author to reader, mediated by largely passive tools. This model enforces rigid separations between creation and consumption, fragments communicative processes, and constrains collaboration as meaning evolves over time. We introduce Agentic Media, a communication paradigm in which media participate in the construction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Yun Wang","user_id":"37827"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Yan Lu","user_id":"34969"}],"msr_publishername":"","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"MSR-TR-2025-62","msr_organization":"Microsoft","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"","msr_conference_name":"","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2025-10-1","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":true,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":null,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13556,13551,13554],"msr-publication-type":[193718],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[269148,269142],"msr-field-of-study":[],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1160298","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-graphics-and-multimedia","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-approved-for-river","msr-post-option-include-in-river"],"msr_publishername":"","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2025-10-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"MSR-TR-2025-62","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"Microsoft","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media-Reimagining-Communication.pdf","id":"1160444","title":"agentic-media-reimagining-communication","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[{"id":1160444,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media-Reimagining-Communication.pdf"},{"id":1160443,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media-2.pdf"},{"id":1160439,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media-Reimagining.pdf"},{"id":1160438,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media-1.pdf"},{"id":1160388,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Agentic-Media.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Yun Wang","user_id":37827,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Yun Wang"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Yan Lu","user_id":34969,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Yan Lu"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[1146385],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"techreport","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":1146385,"post_title":"Agentic Media","post_name":"agentic-media","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2026-02-02 01:26:11","post_modified":"2026-02-05 13:00:41","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/agentic-media\/","post_excerpt":"Communication-centered computing Communication shapes how societies create, share, and preserve knowledge. Yet today\u2019s digital tools remain organized around static formats that enforce rigid separations between creation and consumption, author and reader, expression and interpretation. These structural constraints fragment collaboration and limit how knowledge evolves over time. Agentic Media reframes communication itself as a first-class object of computation. Rather than treating media as passive containers for finalized content, Agentic Media reframes media as intelligent, co-constructive partners…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1146385"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1160298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1160298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160440,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1160298\/revisions\/1160440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publisher?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1160298"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1160298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}