Microsoft Embraces Google's Agent2Agent Protocol, Paving the Way for Interoperable AI Agents

Microsoft adopts Google's standard for linking up AI agents

Microsoft says that it's embracing Google's recently launched open protocol for allowing AI "agents" to communicate with each other. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it would bring support for Google's Agent2Agent (A2A) spec to two of its AI development platforms, Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. Microsoft has also joined the A2A working group on GitHub to contribute to the protocol and tooling. "By supporting A2A and building on our open orchestration platform, we're laying the foundation for the next generation of software -- collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design," wrote the company in a blog post. "The best agents won't live in one app or cloud; they'll operate in the flow of work, spanning models, domains, and ecosystems." A2A, which Google unveiled in early April, allows agents -- AI-powered semi-autonomous programs -- to work together across different clouds, apps, and services. Using the protocol, agents can exchange goals and invoke actions. Developers get a set of interoperable components they can use to make sure agent collaboration occurs securely. Once A2A support arrives for Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, agents built using the platforms will be able to tap external agents for tasks, including agents created with other tools or hosted outside Microsoft. For example, a Microsoft agent could schedule a meeting while a Google agent drafts the email invites. "[C]ustomers can build complex, multi-agent workflows that span internal [agents], partner tools, and production infrastructure -- while maintaining governance and service-level agreements," the company explained in its blog post. "We're aligning with the broader industry push for shared agent protocols." While it's far from perfect, agentic technology is attracting increasing investment as enterprises look to adopt it to boost productivity. According to a recent KPMG survey, 65% of companies are experimenting with AI agents. Markets and Markets projects that the AI agent segment will grow from $7.84 billion in 2025 to $52.62 billion by 2030. Microsoft's decision to throw its weight behind A2A comes after the company introduced support for MCP, Anthropic's standard for connecting AI to the systems where data resides, in Copilot Studio. Other major AI model providers, including Google and OpenAI, announced that they would adopt MCP earlier this year.

The walled garden cracks: Nadella bets Microsoft's Copilots -- and Azure's next act -- on A2A/MCP interoperability

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's endorsement of Google DeepMind's Agent2Agent (A2A) open protocol and Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) will immediately accelerate agentic AI-based collaboration and interdependence, leading to rapid gains in agentic-based apps and platforms. Nadella's endorsement delivers the catalyst the agentic AI development community needed to fast-track their collaborations, leading to entirely new apps, platforms and networks. Having historically been open about the potential for agentic AI to integrate across platforms, yesterday's announcement, which also unveiled upcoming support for CoPilot Studio and Foundry, set a new precedent in how committed Microsoft is to open agentic standards. On Wednesday, Nadella wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that "Open protocols like A2A and MCP are key to enabling the agentic web," before announcing upcoming support in Copilot Studio and Foundry. While often agreeing with the concept of open standards for agentic AI integration, this is the first time he's endorsed a standard publicly. Nadella's influence on the industry will lead to a shift from proprietary ecosystems toward cross-platform, agentic AI collaboration. Committing to open architectures Nadella's history of championing open, interoperable AI architectures spans over a decade. Throughout his many keynotes and interviews, Nadella has made it clear that open standard, not proprietary silos, are among the most reliable catalysts there are to drive adoption of new AI technologies. As early as 2018, Nadella highlighted Microsoft's collaboration with Facebook on ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange), an open model format. He said, ONNX "is supported broadly now by all of the frameworks... as well as the hardware acceleration from Intel, Qualcomm, and Nvidia." Late last year, he reaffirmed an open platform approach to AI development, saying, "We're building on the open platform ethos of GitHub, bringing multi-model choice to Copilot." One of the primary goals of that effort is to enable developers to leverage AI models from any provider instead of being locked into a single vendor. Earlier this year, Nadella doubled down on openness in agentic AI architectures, apps and platforms, emphasizing that open source "absolutely has a massive, massive role to play" in advanced AI systems. He added that "having a posture that allows interoperability is incredibly important" for enterprise AI. Nadella has also predicted that the more AI models become capable of taking on more complex tasks, the more the "models themselves become more of a commodity, and all value gets created by how you steer, ground, and fine-tune these models with your business data and workflow." Through dozens of interviews and keynotes, Nadella continues to underscore that the real competitive edge comes from an open, flexible ecosystem where organizations can mix, match and customize AI components to suit their needs. A2A and MCP are growing in importance Nadella's endorsement of A2A and MCP protocols shows how far the Microsoft senior management team has agreed that an open protocol approach is the best direction for the company. Endorsing both on the same day shows how far Microsoft is in its strategies related to agentic AI collaboration, integration and how diverse agentic AI architectures can be combined. Below is a table comparing each protocol along with a short explanation of its relevance in enterprises. Addressing the past of enterprise vendor lock-in early With enterprise deployments of CoPilot being a strategic priority at Microsoft, it's understandable that Nadella took a preemptive step of reducing enterprise buyers' concerns over vendor lock-in. Previous generations of the company's products sold into enterprises were known for enforcing vendor lock-in either through complex and costly pricing strategies or challenging integration techniques, especially if a comparable Microsoft-native product was available. Nadella has long signaled to enterprises that he sees their infrastructure as being heterogeneous. Stepping into the role of cross-platform enabler, Nadella positions Microsoft's Azure AI strategy as a viable alternative for enterprise DevOps workflows and ongoing development, for example. Copilot can quickly become part of multi-agent workflows now. Interested in enabling agentic AI providers to collaborate in creating new agentic apps, systems and platforms, Microsoft's enforcement of A2A and MCP will prove to be a noteworthy catalyst for agentic AI's growth. A quick win for security and compliance From a compliance standpoint, standard protocols simplify auditing and streamline compliance. When agent-to-agent interaction is structured through A2A, organizations can track exactly which entities exchanged information and when. This end-to-end visibility helps regulators see how customer data flows through various agents. For instance, if a user's personal medical records are passed between an insurance agent and a hospital's scheduling agent, A2A logs can confirm data privacy compliance. Conversely, MCP standardizes how AI systems request and consume data from enterprise data sources. It also resembles zero trust because role-based permissions govern each request, which helps analyze data leakage. Microsoft's reinforcement of these protocols ensures that even if an agent changes providers, say, from a Microsoft-built solution to one from a smaller vendor, the same compliance rules remain in effect, reducing the risk of security gaps. Nadella just accelerated agentic AI innovation Backing A2A and MCP open protocols ensures the core components of any agentic AI tech stack provided by Anthropic, Google or Microsoft will be compatible and capable of interoperability from the first product releases. That removes significant roadblocks for the hundreds of agentic AI startups and partners that rely on these companies for future growth. Removing friction and costs from integrating systems increases data velocity, improves data quality and helps enterprises rely on these systems to serve customers more effectively. When speed is the feature everyone is chasing, going all-in on open standards is the fuel that will most certainly drive faster innovation and more sustainable growth for every agentic AI provider.

Microsoft Backs Google's Open Agent2Agent Protocol to Power Multi-Agent AI Apps

This enables AI agents to collaborate across platforms, clouds, and organisations. Microsoft is expanding support for Google's open AI agent interoperability protocol with the upcoming integration of Agent2Agent (A2A) in Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. This move enables AI agents to collaborate across platforms, clouds, and organisations. The company said the A2A protocol enables "structured agent communication -- exchanging goals, managing state, invoking actions, and returning results securely and observably". "Open protocols like A2A and MCP are key to enabling the agentic web. With A2A support coming to Copilot Studio and Foundry, customers can build agentic systems that interoperate by design," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. The protocol supports popular tools such as Semantic Kernel and LangChain, and routes all communications through Microsoft's enterprise safeguards, including Entra, mutual TLS, Azure AI Content Safety, and full audit logging. "With support for A2A, Azure AI Foundry customers can build complex, multi-agent workflows that span internal copilots, partner tools, and production infrastructure -- while maintaining governance and SLAs (Service Level Agreements)," the company said in a blog post. "Copilot Studio agents will be able to securely invoke external agents, including those built with other platforms or hosted outside Microsoft." Microsoft said that over 10,000 organisations have already adopted its Agent Service in the past four months. At least 2.3 lakh organisations have used Copilot Studio, including 90% of the Fortune 500. "As customers scale these systems, interoperability is no longer optional. They want their agents to orchestrate tasks that span vendors, clouds, and data silos," the company wrote. "They want control, visibility, and trust -- without being locked in." Microsoft has joined the A2A working group on GitHub and plans to contribute to the protocol's specification and tooling. A public preview of A2A support in Foundry and Copilot Studio is expected soon. "We're laying the foundation for the next generation of software -- collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design," the company said. "The best agents won't live in one app or cloud; they'll operate in the flow of work, spanning models, domains, and ecosystems." The company sees this development as part of a larger trend in what it calls "agentic computing", which it says marks a fundamental change in how software is developed and deployed.

Microsoft backs Google's vision for AI agent interoperability

Microsoft is adopting Google's open protocol, Agent2Agent (A2A), for linking AI "agents" to communicate with each other. The company announced on Wednesday that it will bring support for A2A to Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, its AI development platforms. A2A, launched by Google in early April, enables AI-powered semi-autonomous programs to work together across different clouds, apps, and services. The protocol allows agents to exchange goals and invoke actions, providing developers with interoperable components to ensure secure collaboration. "By supporting A2A and building on our open orchestration platform, we're laying the foundation for the next generation of software -- collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design," stated Microsoft in a blog post. "The best agents won't live in one app or cloud; they'll operate in the flow of work, spanning models, domains, and ecosystems." With A2A support, agents built using Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio will be able to tap external agents for tasks, including those created with other tools or hosted outside Microsoft. For instance, a Microsoft agent could schedule a meeting while a Google agent drafts email invites. This will enable customers to build complex, multi-agent workflows that span internal agents, partner tools, and production infrastructure while maintaining governance and service-level agreements. Benioff warns OpenAI about Microsoft's "playbook" Microsoft has also joined the A2A working group on GitHub to contribute to the protocol and tooling. The company stated that by supporting A2A, it is laying the foundation for the next generation of software -- collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design. Microsoft's decision comes as the company continues to invest in AI technology, with its recent introduction of support for MCP, Anthropic's standard for connecting AI to data systems, in Copilot Studio.