Amidst 4,700% surge in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites, new protocol enables safer agent-driven checkout by helping merchants verify agents and avoid malicious bots
Visa Inc. today unveiled Trusted Agent Protocol, establishing a foundational framework for agentic commerce that enables secure communication between AI agents and merchants during every step of a transaction. Trusted Agent Protocol aims to address the unique challenges facing agent-driven commerce, ushering in a new era where AI can search, compare and pay on behalf of consumers, while ensuring trust between merchants and AI agents. With the release of this protocol – developed in collaboration with Cloudflare – Visa reinforces its commitment to supporting safer and more seamless interactions in the evolving ecosystem of intelligent payments. Trusted Agent Protocol is available today in the Visa Developer Center and GitHub.
Over the past year, AI-driven traffic to retail websites in the United States surged over 4,700%, and 85% of shoppers1 who have used AI to shop say it improved their shopping experience. But as more AI agents browse and buy on behalf of consumers, merchants face new challenges:
- Managing bot detection systems that can mistakenly block legitimate agentic transactions
- Supporting agent-driven guest and logged-in checkout
- Preserving visibility into the consumer behind the agent and payment data
Trusted Agent Protocol intends to address these challenges by enabling approved agents to securely pass critical information to merchants. This provides a much-needed framework for recognizing trusted agents with commerce intent and distinguishes them from malicious automation and rogue bots. In developing this protocol, we have received insightful feedback from other early partners including Adyen, Ant International, Checkout.com, Coinbase, CyberSource, Elavon, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Stripe and Worldpay.
“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 and provide a better payments and personalized experience for its known users.”
“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.”
Discover the latest trends and insights—explore the Business Insights Journal for up-to-date strategies and industry breakthroughs!
