FIDO Alliance to start work on interoperable standards for agentic commerce

The FIDO Alliance has announced initiatives to develop interoperable standards for agentic interactions and commerce, and it has a new tool thanks to Google.

A release from the Alliance says work will be led by an Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group, on “efforts to develop specifications for agent-initiated commerce, drawing from initial contributions from Google (AP2) and Mastercard (Verifiable Intent).”

Authentication systems built for humans alone are no longer viable, as agents enter workflows, complete transactions and generally take over the Internet. FIDO’s efforts “aim to define trusted mechanisms for how AI agents authenticate, act, and transact on behalf of users,” to avoid gaps that risk slowing adoption of agentic commerce, which some analysts say could be worth $5 trillion globally by 2030.

Efforts led by the Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group and the Payments Technical Working Group will focus on three core areas. Verifiable User Instructions will enable users to authorize AI agents through “clear, phishing-resistant mechanisms” that do not expose user credentials. Agent Authentication “allows services to verify that an AI agent is acting on behalf of an authenticated user and within defined parameters.” And Trusted Delegation for Commerce “defines how agent-initiated transactions can be executed within user-controlled boundaries, with verifiable authorization.”

At launch, the Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group is chaired by members from CVS Health, Google and OpenAI and vice-chaired by members from Amazon, Google and Okta.

FIDO says the work “recognizes that trusted agentic transactions require not only strong authentication, but also clear, verifiable authorization mechanisms aligned with real-world commerce and payment flows.”

“AI agents are quickly becoming part of how people get things done online – from making purchases to managing everyday tasks,” says Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CEO of the FIDO Alliance. “To scale this safely, people need to trust that these actions are secure, authorized and truly reflect their intent. These initiatives bring the industry together to establish a trusted foundation for agent-driven interactions across authentication and commerce.”

FIDO board members from 1Password, Dashlane, PayPal, Prove Identity, Thales, Visa and more weighed in to endorse the move.

Google to donate Agent Payments Protocol to FIDO Alliance

Working in tandem with the the Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group, FIDO’s Payments Technical Working Group is chaired by members from Mastercard and Visa, with technical contributions from Google and Mastercard.

An announcement from Google says it is transitioning ownership of its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to the FIDO Alliance, to ensure the protocol remains platform-agnostic and community-led, while accelerating adoption of secure agentic payments. AP2 introduces a model for secure delegation, verifiable authorization and trusted transaction execution.

“For agentic technology to scale, it needs to work for everyone,” says a post on Google’s blog.

“That’s why over the last few months, we’ve shared new open commerce and payments standards to serve as the building blocks for the future of AI shopping.”

“With growing support from leaders across the industry, AP2 establishes the open, collaborative foundation for agents to transact safely across any platform.”

Mastercard has contributed its Verifiable Intent framework, co-developed with Google and designed to work with AP2. “For agent‑initiated commerce to scale, user intent must be explicit, verifiable and trusted,” says Pablo Fourez, chief digital officer at Mastercard. “That’s exactly what this work with the FIDO Alliance is designed to enable. By contributing Verifiable Intent to the FIDO Alliance’s standards work, and our continued work with other standards bodies, we’re supporting an approach that creates a shared record of user intent that the entire payments ecosystem can rely on.”

Article Topics

agentic commerce  |  AI agents  |  authentication  |  FIDO Alliance  |  Google  |  Mastercard  |  standards