Loyal Agents
A research collaboration to enable a marketplace of secure, trusted consumer-centric agents
Why it matters
Agentic AI is transforming commerce and services; agents are negotiating, transacting and making decisions with growing autonomy and impact. While agents can amplify consumer power, there is also risk of privacy breaches, misaligned incentives, and manipulative business practices. Trust and security are essential for consumers and businesses alike.
Our focus areas
We're advancing research and standards to make AI agents secure, loyal, and effective advocates for consumers everywhere.
Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
Building future-proof frameworks for identity, authentication, and authorization so agents act reliably and safely on the user's behalf.
Defining duties of AI agents to consumers
Establishing clear principles and legal duties that ensure AI agents remain loyal and prioritize users' interests above all.
Ensuring agents are effective and aligned with consumers' preferences
Designing evaluation methods so agents adapt to individual goals, protect against bias, and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
The latest
Check out our latest webinar hosted by Stanford CodeX’s Dazza Greenwood, featuring leaders from Stripe, Visa, Skyfire, and Consumer Reports as they explore the rise of AI shopping assistants and what new agentic protocols mean for trust, identity, and consumer control.
Watch webinarWho we are
Through this research collaboration, Stanford Digital Economy Lab and Consumer Reports are working to drive state-of-the-art inquiry, build industry consensus, and propose standards and solutions for loyal, trustworthy AI systems.
Stanford's Digital Economy Lab brings together economists, computer scientists, and policy experts to study how digital technologies transform markets, work, and society—conducting research that informs business strategy, innovation, and public policy.
Sandy Pentland
Co-Lead, Stanford HAI Fellow
Tobin South
DEL Digital Fellow, Stanford HAI
Dazza Greenwood
Affiliate, Stanford CodeX
Jiaxin Pei
DEL Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford HAI
Zexue He
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford HAI Fellow
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit member organization that works to create a fairer, safer, and more transparent marketplace. We believe consumers deserve meaningful choices, and modern tools to enable and inform those choices.
Ben Moskowitz
Co-Lead, Consumer Reports Vice President, Innovation
Ginny Fahs
Expert, CR Innovation Lab Director, Product R&D
Andrew Bunyea
Expert, Associate Director at Consumer Reports
Inyoung Cheong
Expert, Princeton CITP Postdoctorate Researcher
Dan Leininger
Expert, CR Innovation Lab, Experimental Engineering
Our partners
