Sierra, together with Meta, announced an open standard called Personal Agent Protocol on 6 October 2026. Its aim is simple: when a user’s AI agent wants to deal with a shop or business on their behalf, both sides share a common language.
How does it work?
- The agent can first come in as a guest, for example to ask about stock or return conditions.
- Once the user signs in to their account, they decide whether the agent may only read or may also act.
- The connection is based on OAuth, the same method used today to sign in to websites with a Google or Meta account.
- The business also chooses whether the agent works with it through the website, an API or the company’s own agent.
According to media reports, companies such as Walmart, Shopify and Stripe support the initiative.
Still early days
The full text of the standard (version 0.1) has not been published yet and is expected soon. Competing standards are also in the works, and some large AI companies have not joined this one yet, so the details may change.
Today AI mostly answers questions; the next step is for it to get things done: place orders, book appointments or follow things up. For that, the key question is trust and access control: exactly what is the agent allowed to do. Standards like this one are the answer to that question.
For businesses it also means that websites and systems will gradually need to be ready for “customers who are agents”.
Photo: US Department of Agriculture (USDA), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
Source: The Next Web ↗
