Akamai and Visa Join Forces to Secure the Next Era of Agentic Commerce

Rhea-AI Summary

Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) announced a strategic collaboration with Visa (NYSE: V) on Dec. 17, 2025 to integrate Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai Cloud's edge-based behavioral intelligence and user recognition. The integration aims to authenticate AI shopping agents, link agents to underlying users, and protect payments to reduce fraud before transactions touch sensitive systems. Key figures cited include a 300% surge in AI-powered bot traffic year-over-year and > 25 billion AI bot requests during a two-month period, and the protocol is positioned to scale across 175 million Visa-accepting merchant locations.

The collaboration targets merchant confidence in agentic commerce by differentiating trusted AI agents from malicious bots and preserving user identity and payment integrity at global scale.

Positive

• AI bot traffic surge of 300% year-over-year
• Over 25 billion AI bot requests in two months
• Trusted Agent Protocol scalable to 175 million merchant locations
• Edge-based agent authentication before sensitive systems

Negative

• None.

Key Figures

AI bot traffic surge 300% Increase in AI-powered bot traffic over the past year per 2025 report

AI bot requests 25 billion AI bot requests in commerce industry over a two-month period

Visa merchant locations 175 million Visa accepting merchant locations globally referenced for protocol adoption

Top retailers using Akamai 9 of top 10 Nine of the world’s top 10 retailers cited as Akamai customers

Market Reality Check

$87.55 Last Close

Volume Volume 2,034,741 is at 0.56x the 20-day average, indicating subdued trading interest pre-announcement. low

Technical Price $87.74 is trading above the $78.83 200-day MA, reflecting a pre-existing upward bias.

Peers on Argus

AKAM was up 1.4% with mixed peer moves: SAIL +2.1%, TWLO +3.61%, OKTA +0.67%, while FFIV -0.98% and RBRK -0.35%, suggesting stock-specific rather than broad sector momentum.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 03	Cloud compliance	Positive	+1.3%	FedRAMP High Ready status for Akamai Cloud supporting sensitive federal workloads.
Dec 02	Partnership	Positive	-1.0%	Zuplo partnership to modernize AccuWeather API delivery and monetization.
Dec 01	Acquisition	Positive	-2.0%	Acquisition of Fermyon to integrate Wasm FaaS with Akamai’s edge platform.
Nov 06	Earnings update	Positive	+0.0%	Q3 2025 results with revenue and EPS growth led by security and cloud.
Nov 05	AI platform	Positive	+1.4%	Early traction for Akamai Inference Cloud as AI workloads move to the edge.

Pattern Detected

Recent news often led to modest positive or muted price moves, with occasional divergence on partnerships and acquisitions.

Recent Company History

Over the past six weeks, Akamai has reported several strategic milestones. On Nov 5, it highlighted early traction for Akamai Inference Cloud, followed by strong Q3 2025 results on Nov 6. In early December, it acquired Fermyon and announced a Zuplo partnership, then on Dec 3 achieved FedRAMP High Ready status. Today’s Visa collaboration extends this pattern of building AI, security, and cloud capabilities on its edge platform.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement details a collaboration between Akamai and Visa to secure AI-driven shopping agents using Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Akamai’s edge-based intelligence. It responds to a reported 300% surge in AI-powered bot traffic and more than 25 billion AI bot requests in commerce over two months. Investors may track merchant adoption across Visa’s 175 million accepting locations and how this complements Akamai’s existing footprint with nine of the world’s top 10 retailers.

Key Terms

agentic commerce technical

"bring stronger identity, user recognition, and security controls to the emerging world of agentic commerce"

Agentic commerce is buying and selling driven by autonomous digital agents — such as smart apps, bots, or AI assistants — that act on a person’s or business’s behalf to find, compare, negotiate and execute transactions. Investors should care because these agents can change who controls customer relationships, cut costs and speed up sales like a personal shopper that never sleeps, but they also shift competitive dynamics, data value and regulatory risk for platforms and retailers.

trusted agent protocol technical

"Through its integration of Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence"

A trusted agent protocol is a set of rules and safeguards that lets a designated person or automated system act on behalf of others to manage assets, sign documents, or execute transactions. Think of it like giving a trusted friend a locked key with clear instructions and limits; for investors it matters because it defines who can move money or make decisions, reduces the chance of mistakes or fraud, and helps meet legal and regulatory requirements.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol to authenticate AI shopping agents and help prevent fraud across Akamai Cloud, strengthening the trust layer in agentic commerce

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online, today announced a strategic collaboration with Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) to bring stronger identity, user recognition, and security controls to the emerging world of agentic commerce. Through its integration of Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot and abuse protection, the companies will deliver the identity, authentication, and fraud controls required to let merchants confidently welcome AI agents with commerce intent into their digital storefronts.

As autonomous AI agents increasingly browse, compare, and purchase on behalf of consumers, merchants face a new array of challenges. Merchants must now be able to differentiate this new type of legitimate automated traffic by authenticating the agent, identifying the user interacting with it, and ensuring the interaction is safe and trusted. Without this trust layer, merchants risk losing control of personalization, security, and the consumer relationship.

Through the Trusted Agent Protocol’s agent authentication framework and Akamai’s edge-based behavioral intelligence and user recognition, merchants gain access to precise, real-time insight into AI agent activity before it touches sensitive systems. This unified approach enables merchants to confidently differentiate trusted AI agents from malicious bots – unlocking the potential of agentic commerce. With Trusted Agent Protocol supported across Akamai Cloud, the world’s most distributed cloud platform, merchants can operate at the speed and scale agentic commerce demands.

“The promise of agentic commerce hinges on recognition: the fundamental ability to trust an agent acting on someone’s behalf,” said Patrick Sullivan, Chief Technology Officer, Security Strategy, Akamai Technologies. “By combining Visa Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's deep user recognition and threat intelligence, we're working to solve the dual-identity challenge that’s crucial to AI commerce. We prove both who the agent is and, critically, who it represents. This is what transforms AI agents from novelties into trusted economic actors.”

“Agentic commerce is unlocking an entirely new wave of digital interactions, but it can only scale if every player in the ecosystem can trust the agents participating in it,” said Jack Forestell, Visa Chief Product & Strategy Officer. “By collaborating with Akamai to deploy Trusted Agent Protocol, we’re delivering the real-time intelligence merchants need to support AI-driven experiences without introducing new risk. This is how we help the industry move confidently into the next era of commerce.”

According to Akamai's 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic has surged 300% over the past year. The commerce industry alone experienced more than 25 billion AI bot requests during a two-month period. As agent-generated traffic accelerates, the risk surface expands and the need for verifiable identity becomes critical.

Trusted Agent Protocol addresses this need directly by helping to ensure that every AI agent paying with a Visa credential is trusted, authenticated, and operating as intended. Using industry standard web infrastructure, Trusted Agent Protocol allows agents to transmit information to merchants to show that the agent is approved for its specific shopping mission, provide visibility into the consumer making the transaction, and securely pass payment information through a merchant’s preferred checkout flow. Trusted Agent Protocol is designed to scale with minimal infrastructure and user experience (UX) changes, making it easy for 175 million Visa accepting merchant locations around the globe to adopt agentic commerce – without compromising security, control, or trust.

Akamai and Visa are working together to help merchants:

• Clearly identify a legitimate AI agent and its intent:
  Visa Trusted Agent Protocol helps merchants differentiate whether an agent is browsing or paying, while Akamai strengthens that signal with real-time behavioral and network intelligence to detect anomalies.
• Confidently link the agent to the underlying user:
  Trusted Agent Protocol helps agents pass pertinent information to connect each verified agent to the consumer it represents, and Akamai preserves that identity through edge-based user recognition, maintaining the risk posture, trust signals, and account context merchants rely on to detect and prevent fraud.
• Enable secure, predictable payment interactions:
  Trusted Agent Protocol assists agents with conveying payment information in the manner a merchant expects an agent to pay, from network tokens to micropayments. Akamai reinforces these flows with end-to-end protection, validating agent authenticity and helping to prevent fraud or abuse before it impacts the transaction.

Nine of the world’s top 10 retailers rely on Akamai to power and protect digital commerce, supporting fast, secure, and seamless shopping experiences. Trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, Akamai helps e-commerce leaders handle peak traffic, accelerate performance, and safeguard online storefronts at global scale.

About Akamai
Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.

About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

Media Contacts
Visa
Conor Febos
cfebos@visa.com

Akamai Media Relations
akamaipr@akamai.com

Akamai Investor Relations
invrel@akamai.com

This press release was published by a CLEAR® Verified individual.

FAQ

What did Akamai announce with Visa on December 17, 2025 for AKAM?

Akamai and Visa announced integration of Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai Cloud to authenticate AI shopping agents and reduce fraud.

How does Trusted Agent Protocol affect merchants accepting AKAM-protected traffic?

It helps merchants verify agent identity, link agents to users, and secure payment flows before transactions hit backend systems.

What evidence did Akamai give that agentic commerce needs this solution?

Akamai cited a 300% increase in AI-powered bot traffic and over 25 billion AI bot requests during a two-month period.

Will the Akamai and Visa solution scale to global merchants for AKAM customers?

Yes; the protocol is designed to scale with minimal UX changes and support up to 175 million Visa-accepting merchant locations.

How does Akamai enhance Visa Trusted Agent signals for AKAM merchants?

Akamai adds edge-based behavioral intelligence and user recognition to strengthen agent intent and anomaly detection in real time.