At the Open Source Summit Japan in Tokyo, the Linux Foundation unveiled the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a groundbreaking industry consortium that promises to transform the fragmented landscape of AI agents through open standards and interoperability.
Building an Open and Interoperable Framework
The AAIF’s primary mission is to standardize and accelerate the emerging ecosystem of AI agents. With backing from major players including OpenAI, Anthropic, Block, and leading cloud and software vendors, the foundation aims to create an agentic AI infrastructure that is open, interoperable, and governed by established open-source principles.
Under the Linux Foundation’s umbrella, the AAIF will serve as a neutral home for open-source projects focused on AI agents. These agents are sophisticated systems capable of planning, acting, and coordinating tools or other agents between Large Language Models (LLMs) and various information services on behalf of users.
Three Core Technologies Powering the Foundation
The foundation is built on three cornerstone technologies that have been donated to create a shared software stack:
- Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) – Acts as a universal protocol for connecting models to tools and data
- Block’s Goose Coding Agent – Provides a real-world agent implementation
- OpenAI’s AGENTS.md – Serves as an open format for defining agent capabilities and orchestration
Together, these technologies form a comprehensive framework designed to ensure transparent governance, cross-vendor standards, and community-driven development, rather than proprietary silos.
Addressing Critical Challenges in Agentic AI
Despite significant hype surrounding agentic AI, the technology faces substantial real-world challenges. Multi-step, tool-using agents present serious security and operational risks that current systems struggle to address.
Security Vulnerabilities
As data protection experts have pointed out, agentic AI can make catastrophic mistakes. Since agents can act as users, they pose significant security threats. Consider an accounts payable scenario: an agent authorized to pay freelancers could potentially be exploited if proper authentication and authorization controls aren’t in place.
For instance, if an agent doesn’t properly distinguish between a CFO requesting a legitimate payment and an unauthorized user attempting fraudulent transactions, the consequences could be severe. Without standardized protocols, securing multi-service agents becomes increasingly difficult.
The Need for Universal Standards
AI agents are rapidly transitioning from laboratories into production environments. Companies are deploying agents to automate workflows, software development, and data-intensive operations. However, without standard protocols and formats, each vendor’s agent stack risks becoming an isolated ecosystem.
This fragmentation makes it challenging for enterprises to integrate tools from different providers or switch vendors when needed. The AAIF addresses this critical gap by providing a shared foundation for the entire industry.
As Chris DiBona, vice president of Microsoft’s office of the CTO, emphasized: “For the agentic future to become a reality, we have to build it together, and we have to build it in the open. The AAIF will give industry and developers a shared and transparent path to evolve the agentic AI ecosystem.”
Short-Term and Long-Term Vision
Immediate Focus
In the near term, the Agentic AI Foundation will concentrate on:
- Evolving MCP, AGENTS.md, and Goose under open governance
- Recruiting additional projects that align with the shared agentic stack
- Establishing transparent development processes
Future Goals
Looking ahead, the AAIF aims to become the central venue for interoperability profiles, security frameworks, evaluation standards, and reference implementations. These resources will enable vendors and open-source projects to build reliable systems as agentic AI becomes integrated into mainstream infrastructure.
The foundation represents a crucial step toward creating a unified, secure, and accessible ecosystem for AI agents, ensuring that the technology can reach its full potential while minimizing risks and maximizing interoperability across the industry.
