Agent & Tool Protocols (MCP, A2A)
Emerging standards for how agents discover and call tools, and talk to each other.
A genuine standards war is underway for how AI agents interoperate — betting on open protocols now avoids costly re-platforming later, even though the winning standard is not yet settled.
Signals behind this placement
- —Multiple competing open protocols are contending to standardise agent-to-tool and agent-to-agent interaction.
Sequencing
Enables Agentic Workflows
Agent & Tool Protocols across other industries
Emerging standards for how agents discover tools, call them and talk to each other.
Agent & Tool Protocols for Health Data Access
Emerging standards for how clinical agents discover and call health-data tools safely.
Agent & Tool Protocols for Open Banking
Emerging standards for how financial agents discover and call open-banking APIs safely.
Agent & Tool Protocols for Machine-to-Machine Coordination
Emerging standards for how agents and machines discover and call each other's capabilities.
Agent & Tool Protocols for Agentic Commerce
Emerging standards for how shopping agents discover products and complete checkout on a customer's behalf.
From the Technology & SaaS Emerging Technology & Innovation Radar, Edition 2026.1, published 2026-10-01.
An independent, industry-agnostic radar curated by Shailesh Kumar.