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Cloudflare, Visa, Mastercard and AmEx Team Up to Authenticate AI Shopping Agents

Card networks are embedding Cloudflare’s real-time bot authentication into agent payment frameworks to kick off merchant and developer pilots.

Overview

  • Visa will embed Web Bot Auth into its Trusted Agent Protocol within Visa Intelligent Commerce, while Mastercard and American Express plan integrations in their own agentic payment systems.
  • Cloudflare’s Web Bot Auth verifies an AI agent’s identity and intent in real time so merchants can distinguish trusted agents from malicious bots at checkout.
  • The protocol is designed to support credit, debit and cryptocurrency payments while preserving low-friction purchase flows for consumers and merchants.
  • Adyen, Checkout.com, Circle, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Webflow and Worldpay have provided feedback as the companies refine the approach.
  • Cloudflare is advancing open efforts such as the Agent Payments Protocol, the x402 Foundation with Coinbase and a NET Dollar initiative, with testing under way and broader rollouts expected over the coming months.