Terry KS Akamai Technologies and Visa have teamed up to enhance identity verification, user recognition, and fraud protection for AI agents in digital commerce. The collaboration aims to empower merchants to safely adopt agent-driven transactions while maintaining consumer trust.
MALAYSIA, 19 DECEMBER 2025 – Akamai Technologies, Inc., the cybersecurity and cloud computing company, has announced a strategic collaboration with Visa to strengthen identity, authentication, and security controls in the emerging world of agentic commerce. By integrating Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot protection, merchants can now securely welcome AI agents acting on behalf of consumers into their digital storefronts.
As autonomous AI agents increasingly browse, compare, and make purchases, merchants face new challenges in distinguishing legitimate automated traffic from malicious bots. The partnership allows merchants to authenticate agents, link them to the underlying users, and ensure secure, trusted interactions. Without this trust layer, merchants risk losing control of personalization, security, and customer relationships.
The Trusted Agent Protocol, combined with Akamai’s edge intelligence, provides real-time insight into AI agent activity before it reaches sensitive systems. This approach enables merchants to differentiate trusted AI agents from threats, unlocking the potential of agentic commerce. Supported across Akamai Cloud, the protocol allows merchants to operate at the speed and scale that agent-driven commerce demands.
Patrick Sullivan, CTO of Security Strategy at Akamai Technologies, explained, “The promise of agentic commerce hinges on recognition: the fundamental ability to trust an agent acting on someone’s behalf. By combining Visa Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s deep user recognition and threat intelligence, we solve the dual-identity challenge crucial to AI commerce.”
Jack Forestell, Visa Chief Product & Strategy Officer, added, “Agentic commerce can only scale if every player can trust the agents participating. By deploying Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai, we provide merchants with real-time intelligence to support AI-driven experiences without introducing new risk.”
According to Akamai’s 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic has surged 300% in the past year, with the commerce sector alone handling over 25 billion AI bot requests in a two-month period. Trusted Agent Protocol ensures that every AI agent paying with a Visa credential is authenticated, authorized, and operating as intended.
Merchants benefit from the collaboration in three key ways:
- Identify legitimate AI agents and intent: Visa and Akamai’s combined solutions detect whether an agent is browsing or paying while monitoring anomalies.
- Link agents to users securely: Trusted Agent Protocol connects verified agents to the consumers they represent, while Akamai preserves identity and trust signals at the edge.
- Enable secure payments: The protocol facilitates proper payment flows for agents, from network tokens to micropayments, reinforced by Akamai’s end-to-end protection.
Akamai, trusted by nine of the world’s top 10 retailers, powers secure, fast, and seamless digital commerce experiences globally, enabling merchants to handle peak traffic, accelerate performance, and protect online storefronts at scale.