An IEEE standards organization that develops specifications for interoperability among software agents and agent-based systems. Originally formed in the late 1990s, FIPA’s work laid the groundwork for how autonomous agents communicate, coordinate, and perform tasks in distributed environments.
At its core, FIPA defines a set of protocols, models, and ontologies that enable agents to:
- Communicate using structured, machine-interpretable messages
- Discover and register services through directory facilitators
- Negotiate tasks, roles, and outcomes through standardized interaction protocols
- Operate within defined agent platforms with lifecycle management and transport layers
One of the most influential contributions from FIPA is the Agent Communication Language (ACL), which provides a formal structure for messaging, including intent (such as request, inform, or propose), content, sender, and expected action. These standards ensure that agents built by different developers or platforms can interoperate effectively.
In marketing technology, while modern implementations of agent communication may favor lightweight or proprietary protocols, the principles behind FIPA still influence how autonomous components coordinate in complex Martech environments—particularly where modularity, scalability, and multi-agent collaboration are priorities. FIPA’s frameworks are especially relevant in AI-native systems that require intelligent decision-making and real-time communication across tools and data sources.