Akamai Technologies and Visa have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at securing the rapidly emerging world of agentic commerce, as autonomous AI agents increasingly browse, compare, and transact on behalf of consumers. The partnership integrates Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence and security capabilities to help merchants authenticate AI agents, identify the users they represent, and prevent fraud across digital storefronts.
As AI-driven shopping agents become more prevalent, merchants face a growing challenge in distinguishing legitimate agent activity from malicious automated traffic. Without clear identity and authentication mechanisms, businesses risk losing control over personalization, security, and the direct relationship with customers. Akamai and Visa said their combined solution is designed to establish a critical trust layer that allows merchants to confidently engage with AI agents while maintaining security and operational control.
Under the collaboration, Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol provides a framework for authenticating AI agents and validating their commerce intent, while Akamai applies real-time behavioral analysis, user recognition, and bot mitigation at the network edge. This unified approach enables merchants to detect and verify agent-generated traffic before it reaches sensitive systems, helping them differentiate trusted AI agents from malicious bots at scale.
Patrick Sullivan, Chief Technology Officer, Security Strategy at Akamai Technologies, said the partnership addresses a fundamental challenge in AI-driven commerce. “The promise of agentic commerce hinges on recognition — the ability to trust an agent acting on someone’s behalf. By combining Visa Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s user recognition and threat intelligence, we can validate both who the agent is and who it represents, transforming AI agents into trusted economic actors.”
Visa echoed the need for trust as AI-driven interactions scale. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, said agentic commerce will only reach its potential if merchants can operate without introducing new risks. “By deploying Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai, we are delivering the real-time intelligence merchants need to support AI-driven experiences securely and confidently,” he said.
The announcement comes amid a sharp rise in automated and AI-driven traffic. According to Akamai’s 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic increased by 300 percent over the past year, with the commerce sector alone recording more than 25 billion AI bot requests over a two-month period. As agent-generated traffic accelerates, both companies argue that verifiable identity and intent are becoming essential to protecting digital commerce ecosystems.
Trusted Agent Protocol is designed to ensure that AI agents using Visa credentials are authenticated, authorised, and operating as intended. Built on industry-standard web infrastructure, the protocol allows agents to communicate their shopping mission, provide visibility into the consumer behind the transaction, and securely pass payment information through a merchant’s existing checkout flow. Visa said the protocol is built to scale with minimal infrastructure or user experience changes, making it accessible to its global network of approximately 175 million merchant locations.
Together, Akamai and Visa aim to help merchants clearly identify legitimate AI agents and their intent, link agents securely to the consumers they represent, and enable predictable, secure payment interactions. Akamai’s role includes validating agent authenticity and preventing fraud or abuse before it impacts transactions.
Akamai said nine of the world’s top ten retailers already rely on its platform to support secure, high-performance digital commerce at global scale. With this collaboration, both companies are positioning themselves at the centre of efforts to define how trust, identity, and security will function in the next phase of AI-driven commerce.
