NIST Launches AI Agent Standards Initiative

The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at NIST has launched a new AI Agent Standards Initiative, aimed at building public confidence in AI agent technology and enabling it to operate securely and interoperably across the digital ecosystem.

The initiative’s work will be centered on three pillars:

1. Facilitating industry-led development of agent standards and U.S. leadership in international standards bodies
2. Fostering community-led open source protocol development and maintenance for agents
3. Advancing research in areas of AI agent security and identity to enable new use cases and to promote trusted adoption across sectors of the economy

NIST will announce research, guidelines, and further deliverables for the AI Agent Standards Initiative in the coming months. Work will be informed by public input, including convenings, Requests for Information (RFIs), listening sessions, and other approaches.

Share Your Input

Stakeholders can inform the initiative through several avenues:

• Respond to CAISI’s recent Request for Information by March 9.
• Submit input on the Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization Concept Paper by April 2.
• Attend CAISI’s sector-specific listening sessions on barriers to AI adoption in April. Submit interest by March 20; applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Learn more: Announcing the “AI Agent Standards Initiative” for Interoperable and Secure Innovation