---
id: "prereq-api-protocols"
type: "prereq"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Technology Stack That Makes Agents Real Buyers"]
tags: ["technical-infrastructure"]
related: ["framework-agentic-tech-stack"]
speakers: ["Kartik Hosanagar"]
reason: "Necessary to comprehend how AI agents technically interface with retail catalogs across different platforms."
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-05-market-to-ai-customer"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-do-you-market-to-an-ai-customer"
sourceTitle: "How Do You Market to an AI Customer?"
---
# Basic API and Protocol Architecture

**Assumed knowledge:** how software systems communicate via **APIs** and **standardized protocols**. The source references *"machine-accessible back doors," "product feeds,"* and *"end-to-end protocols"* ([[concept-commerce-protocols|ACP, UCP]]).

**Why it's needed:** A basic understanding of APIs and protocol standards is required to follow the **Protocol** and **Commerce** layers of the [[framework-agentic-tech-stack]] and to reason about how agents query retail catalogs across platforms.

**Reason (from source):** Necessary to comprehend how AI agents technically interface with retail catalogs across different platforms. *(Adjacent depth: structured data, knowledge graphs, semantic search; delegated payments, tokenized credentials, and strong customer authentication on the trust side.)*