What if AI agents could seamlessly talk to one another, regardless of which company built them?
The Linux Foundation has launched the Agent2Agent (A2A) project, a nonprofit hub for the A2A protocol, which Google Cloud announced in April. The protocol enables generative AI agents to communicate across enterprise environments, such as integrating with various platforms, vendors, or frameworks. The A2A project can be found on GitHub.
Google Cloud handed the project over to the Linux Foundation to ensure it remains vendor-neutral and community-driven. Google donated the protocol specification, its SDKs, and developer tooling to the foundation.
Under the Linux Foundation, A2A will have support and independence from Google Cloud.
AI agent interoperability opens up new use cases
When it was first announced in April, participants of the A2A project included Deloitte, PayPal, and Salesforce; now, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow are all on board for the A2A project, for a total of more than 100 technology companies.
Agents that adhere to the protocol will be able to discover one another, exchange information securely, and collaborate across systems. In turn, the protocol will enable agents to carry out more complex tasks by reaching across platforms.
“By joining the Linux Foundation, A2A is ensuring the long-term neutrality, collaboration and governance that will unlock the next era of agent-to-agent powered productivity,” wrote Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, in a press release.
As part of the project, AWS plans to contribute its agentic frameworks, protocols, and services, as well as work within A2A when making its own agents.
“We’ve always believed in the vision of an open, interoperable Internet of Agents, and we’re joining the A2A Project as foundational members because community-driven development is the fastest path to widespread agent-to-agent adoption,” said Vijoy Pandey, general manager and senior vice president of Outshift by Cisco, in the press release.
Google Cloud plans to develop additional open standards for AI agents in the future, including those for trustworthy agent identity, delegated agent authority, governance policies, agent security, and reputation.
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