Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the connectivity cloud company, has announced collaborations with major payment networks including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to develop a secure authentication framework for agentic commerce — an emerging form of AI-driven online shopping.
The partnership introduces the Trusted Agent Protocol, built on Cloudflare’s Web Bot Auth standard, enabling AI agents to authenticate themselves and transact safely on behalf of consumers. The initiative allows merchants to identify trusted agents, prevent malicious bot activity, and support seamless, secure transactions across various payment methods including credit, debit, and cryptocurrency.
Visa has integrated the Trusted Agent Protocol into its Visa Intelligent Commerce platform, while Mastercard is incorporating Web Bot Auth into Mastercard Agent Pay. American Express is also adopting the protocol as part of its agentic commerce program. AI agents using Cloudflare’s SDK will soon be able to operate autonomously across millions of merchant platforms worldwide.
“Agentic commerce represents the next evolution of digital transactions,” said Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare. “We’re building the trusted foundation that ensures AI agents transact safely and transparently at scale.”
Payment leaders echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the importance of trust, interoperability, and security in the growing AI-driven economy.
Cloudflare is also collaborating with industry partners such as Adyen, Checkout.com, Circle, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Webflow, and Worldpay to refine and expand the Web Bot Auth framework. The effort aims to create an open, secure ecosystem that supports agent-to-merchant connectivity and fosters safer, AI-powered commerce across the Internet.