AI agents are at the center of a new partnership between Cloudflare and GoDaddy, aimed at improving transparency and control over how content is used online. The companies announced a strategic collaboration to support identity, trust, and access in the evolving agentic web.

The Internet is undergoing a major shift. It is moving from a web built for humans to one that also supports automated systems acting on their behalf. However, without clear standards, this transition may expose website owners to unidentified and potentially harmful bot traffic. As a result, there is growing demand for tools that can identify and manage such activity.

Starting today, GoDaddy will integrate Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control into its hosting platform. This integration will help website owners, including small businesses and creators, gain visibility into how AI-powered crawlers access their content. It will also allow them to decide which AI crawlers can collect data, while enhancing site protection.

Moreover, the partnership addresses the need for stronger identity verification for automated systems. GoDaddy introduced Agent Name Service (ANS), a global open standard designed to enable consistent naming, verification, and discovery of AI agents. Built on domain name system (DNS) and public key infrastructure (PKI), ANS helps distinguish legitimate agents from malicious or unidentified ones.

In addition, Cloudflare supports ANS and continues to develop standards for a transparent agentic web. In 2025, the company introduced Web Bot Auth, which uses cryptography to verify bot and agent traffic. It also launched the Signature Agent Card, allowing developers to clearly share an agent’s identity and purpose.

Together, the companies aim to create a permission-based model for the agentic web. GoDaddy’s integration of AI Crawl Control enables website owners to allow, block, or request payment from AI agents accessing their content. This helps protect content value and supports fair use.

Furthermore, the collaboration focuses on building trust in AI-driven commerce. By supporting ANS and Web Bot Auth, both companies provide a verifiable identity layer. This ensures that when automated systems make requests, such as data queries or purchases, their identities are securely verified.

The partnership also addresses economic challenges in the evolving digital landscape. As the Internet shifts toward AI-generated answers, traditional traffic models are changing. By combining audit logs with transparent identity systems, Cloudflare and GoDaddy aim to support fair value exchange while protecting human-generated content.

Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare, said the Internet is becoming a fast-moving AI-driven ecosystem that requires transparent infrastructure. She noted that tools like AI Crawl Control and open standards will help creators verify interactions while enabling trusted participation from AI systems.

Jared Sine, Chief Strategy Officer at GoDaddy, added that the collaboration will provide customers with greater transparency. He emphasized that building verifiable identity through ANS will help users adapt to an AI-first environment.

Overall, the partnership highlights the growing importance of secure and transparent systems for AI agents.

Related post

View all