Akamai Technologies and Visa have announced a strategic collaboration to establish trust in the emerging field of agentic commerce, where AI agents autonomously perform shopping tasks on behalf of consumers. The partnership integrates Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot protection technologies to create a secure, identity-driven framework for AI-powered transactions. As AI agents increasingly navigate digital storefronts to search, compare, and purchase products, merchants face growing challenges in distinguishing legitimate automated traffic from malicious bots. Without a reliable way to verify the identity of these agents and the users they represent, businesses risk compromised security, weakened personalization, and loss of customer trust. The Trusted Agent Protocol enables AI agents using Visa credentials to authenticate themselves in real time, proving they are authorized for specific shopping tasks. It also provides visibility into the end user behind the agent, allowing merchants to confirm the legitimacy of the transaction. This information is delivered through Akamai’s global cloud platform, which processes and analyzes agent behavior at the network edge—before any sensitive data is exposed. Patrick Sullivan, Akamai’s Chief Technology Officer for Security Strategy, emphasized the importance of solving the dual-identity challenge: “We prove both who the agent is and, critically, who it represents. This transforms AI agents from experimental tools into trusted economic actors.” Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product & Strategy Officer, highlighted the broader impact: “Agentic commerce can only scale if every participant in the ecosystem can trust the agents involved. By combining Visa’s protocol with Akamai’s real-time intelligence, we’re giving merchants the tools they need to embrace AI-driven commerce without increasing risk.” According to Akamai’s 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic has surged by 300% over the past year, with over 25 billion AI bot requests recorded in just two months across the commerce sector. This rapid growth underscores the urgent need for standardized identity and authentication mechanisms. The Trusted Agent Protocol is built on standard web infrastructure, requiring minimal changes to existing merchant systems and checkout flows. This makes it easy for the 175 million Visa-accepting merchant locations worldwide to adopt agentic commerce securely and efficiently. The collaboration aims to help merchants: - Authenticate AI agents before allowing access to sensitive systems - Verify the identity of the human user behind the agent - Prevent fraud and abuse while enabling seamless, automated shopping experiences - Maintain control over personalization and customer relationships Nine of the world’s top 10 retailers already rely on Akamai to power and protect their digital commerce operations, leveraging its global scale, performance, and security capabilities. The partnership with Visa marks a key step in building a secure, trustworthy foundation for the next generation of digital commerce.