Meta, Walmart, Stripe and other companies are publishing an open standard called the personal agent protocol. It is designed to set rules for how personal AI agents communicate with businesses and use their services, establishing a shared framework for this form of interaction between customers and companies.
Authentication to distinguish people from agents
The initiative is led by Bret Taylor, co-founder of enterprise AI startup Sierra, which is also participating. Taylor is a former co-CEO of Salesforce and the current chairman of OpenAI.
Taylor compares the proposed authentication approach to signing into other websites with a Google or Facebook account. He says the standard should allow businesses to identify whether a person is using their service directly or through a personal agent. It should also give them visibility into what the agent actually does on their website.
Taylor identifies access by a random bot that does not represent a specific person as a risk. He says companies still need to work out under what circumstances, and through what means, personal agents can obtain information.
Shared rules for communication and data use
David Singleton of Meta Superintelligence Labs links the proposal to the use of sensitive data. For agents to be useful, he says, customers need to share personal information and credit card details. The new standard is intended to provide some visibility and control over how that information is used.
Singleton describes the planned infrastructure as shared rules that personal and business agents could operate under in the future. He compares it to email, where a common standard enables different participants to communicate with one another.
Muse for shopping and booking services
Singleton cites enrolling children in classes and finding and buying gifts as examples of how people currently use Muse. He says they also use the agent to book dentist appointments. The new mechanism is intended to make those tasks faster and easier, according to Singleton.
Agents already face restrictions on access to business websites. Amazon is among the companies that have blocked Meta’s agents over concerns about automated website scraping.
OpenAI and Anthropic have not yet joined
Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is currently part of the initiative. Taylor expects them to participate and emphasizes that the goal is an open standard that competitors of the participating companies will also use.
