Google has unveiled an AI agent game-changer!

In my book Future of Selling: The Rise of AI Agents, I describe how AI agents will take over repetitive and mundane tasks throughout the sales process. 

However, two critical challenges remain for deploying fully autonomous (human-free) agents:

Challenge 1:  AI agents today can only collaborate with other agents if and only if they reside on the same vendor platform (e.g., Salesforce's Agentforce).

Problem: Vendor lock-in limits flexibility and innovation.

Challenge 2: Current AI agents often operate in isolation, handling specific tasks without cross-communication.

Problem: Human intervention becomes mandatory for multi-step workflows.

Google Takes the Lead

NEWS: Google has just announced the Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) with support from 50+ big technology partners including Atlassian, Box, Cohere, Intuit, Langchain, MongoDB, PayPal, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, UKG, and Workday—alongside leading service providers like Accenture, BCG, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, HCLTech, Infosys, KPMG, McKinsey, PwC, TCS, and Wipro. This is big news!

“The A2A protocol will allow AI agents to communicate with each other, securely exchange information, and coordinate actions on top of various enterprise platforms or applications. We believe the A2A framework will add significant value for customers, whose AI agents will now be able to work across their entire enterprise application estates.”

Read that again...slowly! It's important!

A2A is open-source and is explicitly designed to connect AI agents across different frameworks, vendors, and cloud environments (e.g., Salesforce ↔ SAP, AWS ↔ Google Cloud).

• It acts as a “common language” for agents, enabling communication regardless of their underlying architecture.
• It uses Agent Cards (metadata) to advertise capabilities, allowing agents to discover and interact with other agents on different platforms. Think of a baseball team's roster where a visiting agent reviews the team roster to see who’s available to ‘play’. 
• Also, imagine one system connecting to another (think VPN) and browsing the metadata to find an agent to help them complete a task or workflow.

Simple Example: 

1. A customer calls in and talks to an AI customer service agent (CSA) who confirms that the customer’s product is defective and a replacement is needed. 
2. The CSA then ‘calls’ and connects with the SAP system and locates an Inventory Agent (IA) who then checks stock. 
3. The IA then queries the SAP system for a ‘Scheduling Agent’ (SA) to schedule an installation. 
4. The SA then connects back to the CSA and passes on the date and time for the technician to do the install. 
5. The CSA informs the customer and the request is labeled complete. 

You can begin to see how the A2A protocol will make this workflow a reality very quickly.

Why This is a BIG Deal

• No Vendor Lock-In: Enterprises can mix agents from Google, Salesforce, SAP, and others without requiring a unified platform.
• Secure Interoperability: A2A includes enterprise-grade encryption and authentication, enabling secure cross-platform workflows. Again, think VPN!
• Proven Adoption: Over 50 partners (including major cloud providers) are implementing A2A to break down silos. Consensus is the beginning of progress!

Bottom line: A2A enables cross-platform communication by design and will be a game-changer in the evolution and use of AI Agents. AI Agents have just hit a hyperpad for development!