Sierra and Meta propose an open standard for how personal AI agents deal with businesses

The Personal Agent Protocol is meant to define how a customer’s personal agent signs in with a business and what it may do there. Sierra and Meta announced it, with support from Walmart, Shopify, Stripe and others.

The protocol builds on OAuth. An agent can start as a guest, for example to check stock, and once the customer signs in it gets read-only or write access. The business chooses whether the agent works through its website, its APIs or its own agent.

The specification is still a draft, and payments are planned as a later extension. Some partners also back a competing protocol.