open standard

basicwidespread

A publicly available common technical standard that anyone can implement in their own product, enabling devices and software from different manufacturers to work together.

In plain terms

An open standard is like a common size for a socket and a plug: you do not need to know who manufactured the lamp or the wall, because everyone adheres to the same public specification. The same applies in the software world: the standard describes in what form and in what order two programs can exchange data.

It is open because anyone can read its description, anyone can build products on it, and no single company decides its fate. This is why you can send an email from any mail client to any other, and why the same website opens in any browser.

In the age of AI agents, this has become particularly important. An agent is useful only if it can access your calendar, files, and company systems. Without a common standard, a separate integration would need to be written for every AI model and every tool.

Its opposite is the closed, proprietary solution, whose rules are owned by a single company. This can also work well, but if the company raises prices or discontinues the product, it is difficult to migrate your data and work elsewhere.

How it works

Someone (a company, research group, or standards body) describes exactly how two systems should communicate and publishes this description publicly.
Others comment, find errors, and suggest modifications; decisions are ideally made in a transparent, multi-stakeholder process.
Developers independently create their own implementations based on the description, even as competitors.
Because everyone follows the same description, the products work together even though their creators never coordinated with each other.
The standard evolves with new versions, preferably without rendering older devices unusable.

An everyday example

When you connect any brand of headphones to your phone via Bluetooth, or charge your laptop and phone with a USB-C cable, you are using a common, publicly documented industry standard (maintained by manufacturer consortia, where manufacturers must pay for certification and logo usage). The same happens when an AI agent accesses your calendar via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) just as an agent from another manufacturer would.

Who is affected

everyoneWithout open standards, the internet, email, and most devices you connect to each other daily would not work.

entrepreneur, executiveIf you choose a solution built on open standards, switching providers is easier, and you are less dependent on a single company.

developerYou write an integration once, and it works with any agent or system that follows the same standard. → Code

lawyer, citizenMandating open standards in public administration helps ensure that public data and services do not depend on a single supplier. → Law

A common misconception

MythAn open standard is the same as free or open-source software.

In realityThe standard only defines common rules, not the program itself. A paid, closed-source product can be built on an open standard.

Limits and risks

The term 'open' has no single universally accepted definition, so it is worth checking who controls the standard and whether a license fee is required.
The standard ensures interoperability, not security: a malicious or faulty tool can still reach an agent through a standardized connector.
Sometimes a company claims its solution is open, but in reality, it makes all development decisions alone.
Multiple competing standards may exist for the same task, and due to manufacturers' different implementations, cooperation in practice is not always smooth.

Similar, but not the same

open source – Open source refers to the freely viewable and modifiable code of a specific program, while an open standard is only a description of shared rules that many different programs can implement.
API – An API is usually a proprietary connection interface for a specific service, which the owner can change unilaterally, whereas an open standard is a joint, public agreement among many stakeholders. An API can become a standard if its description is maintained jointly.
de facto standard – A de facto standard became widespread because almost everyone uses it, but it can still remain the closed property of a single company.

Related concepts

Broader

standard, interoperability

Narrower

Model Context Protocol, Agent2Agent protokoll, HTTP, JSON

On the edge

open source, protokoll, API, vendor lock-in, AI-agent

A brief history

Open standards spread along with the internet: the IETF, which maintains the internet's basic rules, was formed in 1986, and the W3C, responsible for web standards, in 1994. In the world of AI agents, Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, published in November 2024, became the first widely adopted open standard. In 2025, Google's Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, followed by the MCP, came under the framework of the Linux Foundation, meaning they are no longer decided by a single company.

Where things stand

Open standards as a principle have long been the foundation of the internet and the software industry. In the field of AI agents, by the end of 2026, the most important protocols (such as MCP and A2A) are already under independent foundation stewardship, but the landscape is still evolving, with multiple solutions competing.

Status: 2026 November

In the news

Appears in 2 Agent Age stories; the curve shows weekly occurrence in the news magazine.

Google launches agentic shopping and a universal cart in CanadaNov 4, 2026 · Marketing
Amazon blocks AI shopping agents as Meta, Walmart and Stripe back an open standardOct 5, 2026 · Marketing

Also known as

open standard · open standard · open standard · open standards · open protocol · open protocol · open specification · open specification

Sources

OpenStand – the principles of modern standards-making (IEEE, IETF, IAB, Internet Society, W3C)

This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.