The Future of Agentic AI: Why Open Standards and Interoperability Matter
Show notes
In this episode of The New Stack podcast, recorded at AgentCon + MCPCon in San Jose, host Nick Lucchesi speaks with Manik Surtani, co-founder and CTO of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), about the growing importance of open standards, interoperability, and vendor-neutral governance in agentic AI.
With 305 member organizations and 10 projects, AAIF is expanding its ecosystem through new additions including Anthropic’s AgentSkills, OpenAI’s OpenResponses, Hugging Face’s OpenM, and Alibaba’s OpenSandbox. Surtani explains how these projects help developers build more portable, trustworthy AI systems while reducing dependence on individual vendors.
The conversation explores unresolved challenges in agent memory, identity, authentication, observability, and verifying work performed across multiple agents. Surtani also discusses the foundation’s evolving approach to supporting early-stage open-source projects and why the agentic AI stack may never fully stabilize.
Looking ahead, he predicts that AI agents will transform commerce, from purchasing decisions to advertising, making open protocols and industry collaboration increasingly essential.
Learn more from The New Stack around the latest developments around open standards and interoperability in agentic AI:
The Agentic Web: How AI Agents Are Shaping the Web’s Future
6 agentic knowledge base patterns emerging in the wild
Five AI rivals just backed a shared plugin standard. Here's why it matters for developers.
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