Meta, Sierra Develop Personal Agent Protocol to Standardize AI Agent-Business Interactions

Meta Platforms is co-developing an open standard with enterprise AI startup Sierra to help businesses identify, verify and manage AI agents acting on behalf of consumers. The Personal Agent Protocol, with participants including Shopify, Stripe, Walmart, Genesys, Instinct and Rocket, will define how personal AI agents interact with corporate websites, APIs and enterprise agents. Version 0.1 is expected by the end of October. The protocol uses OAuth for identity verification, allowing consumers to grant agents read-only or write permissions, while businesses can control what data agents access and what actions they execute. Sierra co-founder Bret Taylor described current agent-business interactions as "chaotic" without common standards. The effort follows Meta's September launch of personal AI agent Muse, which quickly ranked among the top free apps on Apple's U.S. App Store. Meta also introduced its Enterprise Platform offering Muse, Meta Business Agent and related tools to businesses and developers. Payment functionality is not part of version 0.1 but may be added later. Both Stripe and Shopify also participate in Visa's competing Trusted Agent Protocol, covering roughly 175 million merchants.