# Beyond Scaling: Agents Are Heading to the Edge

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18535 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18535/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 45 of its 72 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 May 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/general-llm-agent-frameworks-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.08361/) (2020)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Training Compute-Optimal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15556/) (2022)
- [Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07682/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [Extracting Training Data from Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07805/) (2020)
- [WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.13854/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07864/) (2023)
- [AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03688/) (2023)
- [OSWorld: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents for Open-Ended Tasks in Real Computer Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07972/) (2024)
- [HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Face](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17580/) (2023)
- [GAIA: a benchmark for General AI Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12983/) (2023)
- [FrugalGPT: How to Use Large Language Models While Reducing Cost and Improving Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.05176/) (2023)
- [A Comprehensive Overview of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06435/) (2023)
- [Scaling Laws for Autoregressive Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.14701/) (2020)
- [LaMP: When Large Language Models Meet Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11406/) (2023)
- [Cognitive Architectures for Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.02427/) (2023)
- [Detecting Spacecraft Anomalies Using LSTMs and Nonparametric Dynamic Thresholding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04431/) (2018)
- [AgentTuning: Enabling Generalized Agent Abilities for LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12823/) (2023)
- [Android in the Wild: A Large-Scale Dataset for Android Device Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10088/) (2023)
- [FreshLLMs: Refreshing Large Language Models with Search Engine Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03214/) (2023)
- [On the Planning Abilities of Large Language Models : A Critical Investigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15771/) (2023)
- [Mobile-Agent: Autonomous Multi-Modal Mobile Device Agent with Visual Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16158/) (2024)
- [Small Language Models are the Future of Agentic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02153/) (2025)
- [Edge Intelligence: Paving the Last Mile of Artificial Intelligence with Edge Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.10083/) (2019)
- [MobileLLM: Optimizing Sub-billion Parameter Language Models for On-Device Use Cases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14905/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [ComBodied Agents: a New Paradigm of Human-Centric Agentic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10915/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The bottleneck of useful agentic intelligence has shifted from compressing world knowledge into a single model to executing a coordinated system. This position paper argues that personal-agent architecture must move to the edge because the core properties of agentic intelligence tasks, particularly their structural coupling with high-fidelity local context and the need for zero-latency execution loops, do not sit well with cloud-centric designs. We develop this claim through three structural shifts. First, the Prefrontal Turn: the main marginal lever of capability has moved from pre-training scale to framework-level executive control. Such control must remain physically close to the environment of action if the agent is to preserve cognitive alignment. Second, the Data-Geography Paradox, the ``dark matter'' of agentic data (local file hierarchies, real-time sensor streams, and transient OS states) degrades, disappears, or loses meaning once prepared for cloud transmission, thereby cutting the agent off from ground-truth context. Third, the interaction-alignment loop, the only economically and ecologically sustainable source of agentic refinement data is the high-fidelity implicit preference signal produced through real-time local interaction. Third, the interaction-alignment loop, the only economically and ecologically sustainable source of agentic refinement data is the high-fidelity implicit preference signal produced through real-time local interaction. We conclude with falsifiable predictions for the next deployment cycle of personal agents.