The world of artificial intelligence reached a decisive turning point in 2025: AI systems are evolving from experimental prototypes to productive tools that take on real tasks in companies. At exactly this critical moment, a decisive step was taken to secure the future of this technology. The Linux Foundation has announced the establishment of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) – a consortium launched by industry leaders such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Block, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services.
For us at innFactory AI, this is confirmation of a principle we’ve always followed: The future of AI must be built on open, interoperable, and standardized systems. We explain what’s behind the AAIF and why this is crucial news for any company investing in AI.
The Problem: The Looming Costs of Fragmentation
With the increasing spread of AI agents – from code assistants to automated customer service systems – a significant danger grows: ecosystem fragmentation. Without common conventions and neutral governance, development threatens to drift into incompatible, proprietary silos. The consequences would be limited portability, increased security risks, and slowed progress. A company that bets on the wrong, closed system today could end up in a dead end tomorrow.
The AAIF was founded precisely to prevent this scenario.
The Three Pillars of the AAIF: A Foundation for the Open AI Future
At the center of the new foundation are three projects that already shape AI development today and are now brought together under the Linux Foundation umbrella to guarantee their long-term, vendor-neutral development.
1. Model Context Protocol (MCP): The Universal Nervous System for AI
- What it is: MCP is a universal standard for connecting AI models with tools, data, and applications. Think of it as the “HTTP” for AI agents – a common language everyone speaks. OpenAI was one of the first adopters and has deeply integrated MCP into ChatGPT for connecting connectors and apps.
- Who’s behind it: Originally developed by Anthropic, but with strong support and contributions from the entire ecosystem.
- Why it matters: MCP creates a unified interface that accelerates development, increases security, and ensures seamless interoperability. This promotes collaboration, as demonstrated by the recent cooperation between OpenAI and Anthropic to offer developers a unified platform through “MCP Apps.”
2. AGENTS.md: The Universal User Manual for AI Agents
- What it is:
AGENTS.mdis a brilliantly simple solution to a complex problem, contributed by OpenAI. It’s a simple Markdown file that – similar to aREADME.md– sits in a software project. It gives an AI programming agent precise, project-specific instructions, e.g., on coding conventions, build steps, and test requirements. - Who’s behind it: Developed and now donated to the Foundation by OpenAI.
- Why it matters:
AGENTS.mdmakes AI agent behavior predictable and reliable. Instead of an agent having to “guess” how a project works, it reads the manual and simply knows. Since its introduction in August 2025, the standard has already been adopted by over 60,000 open-source projects and frameworks like Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and VS Code. Transfer to the AAIF ensures no single company retains control.
3. goose: The Secure Operating System for AI Agents
- What it is: goose is an open-source framework for running AI agents locally and securely. It combines language models and extensible tools based on the MCP standard.
- Who’s behind it: Developed by Block (the company behind Square and Cash App).
- Why it matters: goose delivers the practical infrastructure to build agent-based workflows reliably and controllably. The “local-first” approach gives companies full control over their data and processes – a crucial factor for security and compliance.
More Than Just Words: The Commitment to an Open Ecosystem
The founding of the AAIF doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of years of groundwork. OpenAI alone has contributed crucial building blocks as open source in the past, including the Agents SDK, the Apps SDK, and the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). Their Codex CLI has already helped process over two million pull requests on GitHub – impressive proof of the value of open tools.
Why This Matters for innFactory AI and Our Customers
The founding of the AAIF underpins our philosophy at innFactory AI. We build AI solutions like our CompanyGPT that deliberately don’t rely on proprietary silos but on flexible, secure, and standardized architectures.
- Future-Proofing: By using standards like MCP that are supported by the entire industry, your AI investments will still be valuable tomorrow, and you avoid vendor lock-in.
- Security and Control: Frameworks like goose and the “local-first” approach enable us to operate AI agents securely in your infrastructure so sensitive data never leaves your company.
- Efficiency and Innovation: Unified standards like
AGENTS.mdallow us to develop robust and innovative solutions faster because we can focus on business logic instead of dealing with compatibility issues.
The Future of AI Will Be Built Open
The Agentic AI Foundation is more than just a new organization. It’s the promise of an entire industry to shape the next phase of artificial intelligence collaboratively, transparently, and in everyone’s interest. By entrusting their foundational technologies to a neutral body like the Linux Foundation, the key players create a stable foundation on which the whole world can build.
At innFactory AI, we’re excited to be part of this development and to build on these new, robust standards to realize the best and most future-proof AI solutions for our customers.
Want to learn how your company can benefit from agent-based AI solutions based on open standards? Talk to our experts!