Google and Microsoft join forces to launch a new protocol as traditional tech giants use standards battles to encircle Anthropic and OpenAI.

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Traditional tech giants such as Google and Microsoft are joining forces to build a new technological barrier, aiming to thwart OpenAI and Anthropic’s aggressive expansion in the enterprise AI market.

On June 18, according to The Information, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Snowflake, ServiceNow, and other companies jointly announced their support for a new software standard called "Agentic Resource Discovery" (ARD).

The purpose of this protocol is to allow enterprise employees to access all AI tools and functions of their company through a single application, thereby turning their products into a unified entry point for enterprise AI use. Notably, neither Anthropic nor OpenAI appeared on the initial list of supporters.

The introduction of the ARD protocol further intensifies the battle for ecosystem dominance between traditional tech giants and new AI players.

ARD Protocol Analysis: From Technical Evolution to the Ambition for a ‘Platform-level Entry Point’

The core goal of the ARD protocol is to encourage traditional enterprise software vendors like Microsoft and Google to transform their products into entry-level platforms for unified access to various AI capabilities.

According to reports, under this protocol, when employees initiate AI tasks through applications such as GitHub Copilot, Google Gemini, or Salesforce CRM, the system can automatically identify and invoke all ARD-supported AI functionalities and services, without requiring users to manually switch tools.

Microsoft stated in its blog: “ARD helps AI clients discover various capabilities, but does not replace authentication, authorization, governance, or organizational trust decisions.”

From a technical perspective, ARD follows the model context protocol (MCP) released by Anthropic last year. MCP was also designed to let AI agents access external application data, functioning similarly to an API. Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google had previously supported MCP. The ARD proposal is seen as an extension and evolution of MCP’s concept amid deepening enterprise AI application scenarios.

‘Entry Point Battle’ Between New AI Giants and Traditional Tech Titans

Regarding this new standard, Anthropic and OpenAI’s stance is intriguing. Neither has joined the initial ARD supporters. According to The Information’s analysis, as challengers in the enterprise application market, they may deliberately ignore the protocol.

The core reason lies in a fundamental strategic conflict: Anthropic and OpenAI strive to make Claude and ChatGPT the main entry point for employees to access all AI tools and enterprise applications, rather than merely being a component of others’ ecosystems. This stands in direct opposition to Microsoft and Google’s ARD-driven “self-centered” ecosystem logic.

Currently, both traditional software vendors and emerging AI companies are racing to develop so-called “superagents”—a universal AI system capable of cross-application execution. Whether ARD will see widespread adoption remains highly uncertain.

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