Cloudflare, Inc., a connectivity cloud company, is collaborating with major payment networks, including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, to establish an authentication layer for agentic commerce through its Web Bot Auth protocol, enabling AI agents to conduct secure transactions at a global scale.
Agentic commerce represents an evolving form of online shopping where AI agents execute the entire purchasing process on behalf of a consumer. This development offers opportunities for both consumers and merchants but also introduces complexities, particularly in differentiating between legitimate AI agents and malicious bots, while maintaining a seamless customer experience.
To address these challenges, Cloudflare and Visa have jointly developed the Trusted Agent Protocol. This new protocol is designed to integrate Web Bot Auth, allowing payment networks to enable merchants to securely and transparently interact with AI-driven shopping agents. Visa is incorporating these capabilities into its agentic payment platform, Visa Intelligent Commerce.
Cloudflare is also working with Mastercard, which is integrating Web Bot Auth into Mastercard Agent Pay. This initiative aims to assist merchants in identifying trusted agents and facilitating secure, personalized agentic commerce experiences. American Express will similarly utilize Web Bot Auth within its agentic commerce program. AI agents built using the Cloudflare Agents SDK will soon leverage these protocols for autonomous shopping across numerous global merchants.
Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare, stated, “The future of commerce is agentic, and Cloudflare is building the trusted foundation for it. We’re directly enabling developers, merchants, and payments companies to innovate, and that starts by ensuring security is not an afterthought—it’s built in by design. With our global network, we’re uniquely positioned to enable trust protocols that allow AI agents to transact safely, unlocking the next era of digital commerce for everyone.”
The Web Bot Auth protocol, previously proposed, allows bots and agents to authenticate their identity. When used with the Trusted Agent Protocol, merchants can ascertain the identity and intent of agent traffic and securely process various payment methods, including credit, debit, and crypto. Its compatibility with major agentic frameworks aims to create an authentication layer for scalable and secure agentic commerce deployment.
Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa, commented, “As AI agents begin to transact on behalf of consumers, a new era of commerce is emerging—one that demands trust, transparency, security, and industry collaboration. Merchants shouldn’t have to choose between blocking bots and serving real customers—Trusted Agent Protocol helps solve that.”
Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard, added, “Agents have the potential to enable a much more seamless shopping experience, but this will only be possible if the agent can be trusted and if merchants have the tools they need to easily support this new era of commerce. In collaboration with industry players like Cloudflare, we are simplifying agent verification for merchants and ensuring a unified approach to agentic commerce that is scalable, secure, and widely adopted.”
Luke Gebb, EVP & Head of Global Innovation, American Express, noted, “American Express is excited to utilize Cloudflare’s Web Bot Auth Protocol to help merchants identify trusted agents and deliver secure agentic commerce experiences. Trust and accountability are at the core of what we do, and this collaboration continues our commitment to ensuring safety and confidence in every digital interaction.”
Several partners have provided feedback on the application of Web Bot Auth for agentic commerce and will continue to contribute to the framework’s evolution. These include Adyen, Checkout.com, Circle, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Webflow, and Worldpay.
Cloudflare and its payment partners intend to use Web Bot Auth to facilitate the adoption of agentic commerce, enabling merchants to grant access to legitimate AI agents while preventing fraudulent activity. This functionality allows merchants to:
* Understand customers’ intent: Agents can communicate and verify their purpose, whether gathering product details or making a purchase.
* Maintain personal relationships with customers: Merchants can determine if a customer has an existing account or shopping history, even when an agent initiates a purchase.
* Process payments from agents: Agents can utilize diverse payment methods, such as credit, debit, or cryptocurrency, to complete transactions.
Cloudflare has also contributed to other open protocols, including the Agent Payments Protocol, introduced the Cloudflare NET Dollar, and is establishing the x402 Foundation with Coinbase, all aimed at accelerating agentic commerce across the Internet.
