Agent Payments Protocol AP2

Agent Payments Protocol AP2: Securing AI-Driven, Agentic Payments with the FIDO Alliance

What is the Agent Payments Protocol AP2? Agent Payments Protocol AP2 is a modern, security-first framework designed to secure AI-driven, agentic payments across distributed digital ecosystems. Building on established authentication and cryptographic standards, AP2 aims to reduce fraud risk, enhance user trust, and streamline cross‑system payment workflows where autonomous agents participate in transaction negotiations and settlements. At its core, AP2 creates a trust fabric that binds payment intent, agent identity, and payer consent through cryptographic proofs that are resilient to phishing, credential theft, and interception. For teams exploring responsible AI finance, AP2 offers a structured path to emerge from bespoke, siloed payment implementations toward a interoperable, standards-based approach. AP2 does not replace existing payment rails or compliance regimes; instead, it complements them by providing a unified protocol layer that validates who is initiating a payment, what is being paid for, and under which conditions. In practice, an agent could represent a business process, a customer support bot, or a marketplace agent orchestrating micro‑payments as part of an automated service. AP2 ensures that every action in