Agent2Agent Protocol: The HTTP of AI Agents
Hey chummers,
Google just launched Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) - a standardized way for AI agents from different companies to communicate and collaborate.
Microsoft already adopted it. 50+ major companies are implementing it. This is the infrastructure layer for AI agent interoperability.
What A2A Actually Is
Agent2Agent is an open protocol for AI agent communication. Instead of building monolithic AI systems, companies build specialized agents that communicate through A2A.
Core components:
- Client Agent: Sends tasks
- Remote Agent: Executes tasks
- Agent Cards: JSON capability advertisements
- Task Objects: Structured requests with lifecycles
Built on HTTP, Server-Sent Events, and JSON-RPC. Full specification available on GitHub.
The Real-World Example
Google's hiring scenario: HR manager tasks their agent to find software engineer candidates. The agent coordinates with recruiting agents for sourcing, scheduling agents for interviews, and background check agents for verification. All automated across different companies' systems.
Each agent specializes in one function but they collaborate through A2A to handle complete workflows.
The Technology Architecture
Capability Discovery: Agents advertise capabilities through "Agent Cards." Your AI discovers available Salesforce CRM agents, MongoDB database agents, and PayPal payment agents.
Task Management: Communication organized around "tasks" with structured lifecycles. Supports quick responses and long-running projects with real-time status updates.
Modality Support: Handles text, audio, video, web forms, iframes - whatever format the task requires.
Security: Enterprise-grade authentication and authorization with audit trails across multi-agent workflows.
Industry Adoption
Technology partners: Salesforce, Microsoft, Atlassian, ServiceNow, UiPath, LangChain, MongoDB, PayPal.
Enterprise services: Deloitte, Accenture, KPMG, PwC.
When Microsoft immediately adopts Google's open protocol, it signals this is becoming the standard.
Why This Matters
End of AI vendor lock-in: Before A2A, choose one AI stack. After A2A, use best-of-breed agents from multiple vendors working together.
Agent specialization: Companies build agents that excel at specific tasks. Cohere builds secure enterprise AI, Neo4j builds graph knowledge agents, Datadog builds monitoring agents.
True automation: Moving from "AI assists with tasks" to "AI orchestrates complete business processes across multiple systems."
Economic Impact
Market transformation: A2A creates infrastructure for an AI agent economy. Companies focus on domain expertise and integrate through standardized protocols.
Intuit states: "A2A will enable complex agent workflows, accelerate partner integrations, and move the industry forward."
SAP notes A2A helps "unlock the full potential of end-to-end business processes."
Cost reduction: Leverage specialized agents from domain experts rather than building everything in-house.
Bottom Line
Google created the HTTP of AI agents. 50+ companies are implementing it. Microsoft already adopted it. Protocol is open source and ready for implementation.
This moves us from isolated AI systems to an interconnected ecosystem of specialized agents that discover, communicate, and collaborate across vendors.
Companies that implement A2A early get access to the largest ecosystem of AI capabilities. Those that don't will build isolated systems in an increasingly connected world.
The agent internet is here.checkCompletion()
Walk safe,
-T
Sources & Technical Documentation:
- Announcing the Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) - Google Developers Blog
- A2A Full Specification - GitHub
- Agent2Agent Protocol Documentation
- Microsoft adopts Google's standard for linking up AI agents - TechCrunch
- Agent2Agent: Google announces open protocol so AI agents can talk to each other - SiliconANGLE
- Google's Agent2Agent interoperability protocol aims to standardize agentic communication - VentureBeat
- Google Open-Sources Agent2Agent Protocol for Agentic Collaboration - InfoQ
- What is A2A? Understanding Google's Agent2Agent protocol - KeyValue Systems
- Building the industry's best agentic AI ecosystem with partners - Google Cloud Blog