7 Popular Protocols used in AI Agents | Rakesh Gohel

Our Entire 2025 tech innovations were driven by AI Agent Protocols Let's learn about their types and how they work for your agents... As AI Agents become more powerful, we wanted to make the tooling and scalability of each agent more powerful. What is the efficient way of communicating across tools? How do they talk to each other, securely and efficiently, across frameworks and vendors? That’s where AI Agent Protocols come in. Think of them as the HTTP of the Agent world. Let me break down 7 groundbreaking protocols shaping the future of Agentic and tool Interoperability: 📌 MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Anthropic - Enables secure two-way communication between an LLM and external tools. - Think of it as the USB-C for AI agents connecting to real-time data. Repo: https://lnkd.in/g586baCv 📌 A2A (Agent 2 Agent Protocol) – Google - Built for agent-to-agent communication, regardless of vendor or framework. - Enables agents to discover, collaborate, and execute multi-step tasks. Repo: https://lnkd.in/gQrycbgZ 📌 ACP(Agent Communication Protocol) – IBM - A RESTful protocol enabling persistent, secure agent conversations. - Focused on asynchronous, scalable, and observable execution. Repo: https://lnkd.in/gfcjQnXU 📌 SLIM (Secure Low-Latency Interactive Messaging) – Cisco - Supports streaming, pub/sub, and real-time routing via gRPC. - Perfect for high-speed, event-driven, multi-agent environments. Repo: https://lnkd.in/ghZpna3G 📌 Agora – University of Oxford - Transforms natural language into protocols dynamically. - A game-changer for user-centric multi-agent workflows. Repo: https://lnkd.in/g8D2v2WP 📌 ANP (Agent Network Protocol) – ANP Team - Built on W3C DIDs + JSON-LD for decentralized interoperability. - Ideal for agent discovery and negotiation across domains. Repo: https://lnkd.in/g5RnZtB9 📌 AG-UI (Agent-User Interaction Protocol) – CopilotKit - Standard protocol for communication between AI agents and user interfaces. - Think of it as the "