Agent2Agent (A2A) is an open protocol that lets AI agents built on different frameworks or by different vendors discover one another and collaborate through a common interface. It standardizes how agents exchange messages, capabilities, and tasks, so multi-agent systems can interoperate instead of being locked to a single platform.
Also known as: A2A, agent-to-agent protocol
Real enterprises run agents from many tools. An interoperability standard like A2A lets those agents work together, which is what makes large multi-agent workflows practical across a heterogeneous estate.
watsonx Orchestrate supports interoperability with external agents. Incede.ai designs multi-agent workflows that take advantage of these patterns while keeping governance intact.
Coordinating several specialized agents — with handoffs and shared context — to complete a process that no single agent owns end to end.
Read definition →Agentic AIA software component that pursues a goal by perceiving context, reasoning about what to do, and acting through tools and APIs — then iterating on the result.
Read definition →Agentic AIAI systems that take action — applying logic, making decisions, and running multi-step workflows end to end across enterprise systems, with human oversight.
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