The rapid growth of AI-driven shopping agents presents a new challenge for online merchants: how to distinguish legitimate AI-driven purchases from malicious bot traffic. In response, Visa has unveiled the Trusted Agent Protocol, a foundational framework developed in collaboration with Cloudflare. This protocol is designed to establish secure communication between AI agents and merchants throughout a transaction, aiming to usher in a new era of agentic commerce where AI can safely search, compare, and pay on behalf of consumers while ensuring trust and security for all parties.
Quick Intel
Visa launches Trusted Agent Protocol to secure AI-driven "agentic commerce."
The protocol helps merchants distinguish trusted AI agents from malicious bots.
It allows agents to securely communicate intent, consumer data, and payment information.
Developed with Cloudflare, it leverages the HTTP Message Signature standard.
The goal is to enable seamless, secure agentic transactions without major merchant system overhauls.
It is available now in the Visa Developer Center and on GitHub.
Addressing the Agentic Commerce Challenge
The need for such a protocol is underscored by a massive surge in AI-driven web traffic and positive user reception; however, merchants struggle with systems that often block legitimate AI transactions. The Trusted Agent Protocol directly addresses these pain points by enabling approved agents to securely pass critical information to merchants. This provides a framework for recognizing trusted agents with commercial intent, supporting both guest and logged-in checkouts, and preserving visibility into the consumer behind the transaction.
“We believe the entire payments ecosystem has a responsibility to ensure sellers can trust AI agents as much as they trust their best customers and networks,” said Jack Forestell, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Visa. “For the past year, we’ve worked closely with sellers, issuers and partners to make sure agent-initiated transactions are as seamless and secure as any payment today. Our new agent protocol is focused on creating no-code functionality for merchants to securely identify agents with an intent to buy.”
How the Protocol Supports Merchants
The protocol uses agent-specific cryptographic signatures to convey essential information. This includes the agent's intent to browse or purchase, data for consumer recognition to maintain existing customer relationships, and optional payment information to support a merchant's preferred checkout method. Built on the HTTP Message Signature standard and aligned with Web Bot Auth, the protocol is designed for minimal disruption, requiring few changes to merchant websites or checkout pages while leveraging existing web infrastructure.
“Securing the future of commerce is a shared responsibility, especially as AI agents begin to act on behalf of consumers,” said Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer, Cloudflare. “Our work with Visa on the Trusted Agent Protocol is a vital step in building the necessary guardrails for this new ecosystem.”
Visa is pursuing an open, ecosystem-wide approach for the protocol's future, committing to align with global standards bodies and collaborate with partners like Coinbase for interoperability. By providing the foundational trust layer for AI-driven transactions, the Trusted Agent Protocol aims to unlock the full potential of agentic commerce, allowing merchants to safely embrace this new shopping paradigm and offer personalized experiences for users employing AI agents.
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement.
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones—and thrive on the tech pulse.