Akamai Technologies and Visa announced a strategic collaboration to secure the emerging market of AI‑driven commerce, integrating Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai’s edge‑based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot‑and‑abuse protection.
The partnership will allow merchants to distinguish legitimate AI agents from malicious bots in real time, providing identity verification, authentication, and fraud controls for agents that browse, compare, and purchase on behalf of consumers. Visa’s cryptographic protocol gives agents a verifiable identity, while Akamai’s distributed cloud platform delivers the low‑latency threat intelligence needed to enforce it at the edge.
The collaboration comes amid a 300 % year‑over‑year surge in AI‑powered bot traffic, with Akamai reporting over 25 billion AI bot requests in a two‑month period. The rapid growth of AI agents in e‑commerce has created a critical need for standardized trust mechanisms, and the partnership positions both companies to address that demand.
Akamai’s Q3 2025 results provide context for the partnership’s potential impact. Revenue rose 5 % to $1.055 billion, driven by a 10 % increase in Security revenue to $568 million, while Delivery revenue fell 4 % to $306 million. Earnings per share of $1.86 beat analyst expectations of $1.64 by $0.22, largely due to disciplined cost management and the higher margin mix in the Security segment. The company’s operating margin slipped slightly to 9.9 % from 10.2 % as the lower‑margin Delivery segment weighed on overall profitability.
Patrick Sullivan, Akamai’s Chief Technology Officer for Security Strategy, said the collaboration “solves the dual‑identity challenge that is critical to AI commerce.” Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product & Strategy Officer, added that “agentic commerce is unlocking a new wave of digital interactions, but it can only scale if every player in the ecosystem can trust the agents participating.”
The partnership strengthens Akamai’s position in the high‑growth security and AI space, diversifying its revenue mix beyond traditional CDN services. By leveraging its recent investments in AI inference at the edge and the acquisition of Fermyon, Akamai can embed the Trusted Agent Protocol into its existing product portfolio, potentially generating new subscription revenue streams and deepening customer relationships.
On December 15 and 16, Akamai’s stock closed at $86.53 and $87.59, respectively, reflecting positive sentiment from the company’s Q3 earnings beat and guidance. While the partnership announcement itself did not directly drive a market reaction, the underlying confidence in Akamai’s security strategy and AI capabilities is likely to influence investor perception going forward.
The collaboration signals a strategic pivot toward securing AI‑driven commerce, a market that is expected to grow rapidly. If successfully implemented, the partnership could become a key differentiator for merchants and a new source of recurring revenue for Akamai, reinforcing its competitive advantage in the edge‑security ecosystem.
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