Akamai partners with Visa to secure AI agent commerce transactions

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) announced a collaboration with Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) to develop security controls for AI-powered commerce transactions. The partnership integrates Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's edge-based behavioral intelligence and bot protection systems.

The collaboration addresses challenges merchants face as autonomous AI agents increasingly conduct transactions on behalf of consumers. The combined technology aims to help merchants authenticate AI agents, identify users, and distinguish legitimate automated traffic from malicious bots.

According to Akamai's 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic increased 300% over the past year. The commerce industry experienced more than 25 billion AI bot requests during a two-month period.

"The promise of agentic commerce hinges on recognition: the fundamental ability to trust an agent acting on someone's behalf," said Patrick Sullivan, Chief Technology Officer, Security Strategy at Akamai Technologies.

The Trusted Agent Protocol helps ensure AI agents using Visa credentials are authenticated and operating as intended. The protocol uses standard web infrastructure and is designed to scale with minimal changes to existing merchant systems across Visa's 175 million accepting merchant locations globally.

The partnership enables merchants to identify legitimate AI agents, link agents to underlying users, and process secure payment interactions. Akamai provides real-time behavioral intelligence while Visa's protocol handles agent authentication and payment information transmission.

Nine of the world's top 10 retailers use Akamai's services for digital commerce operations, according to the company.

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