GoDaddy and LegalZoom have partnered to support the open agentic web, a move aimed at making AI agents easier to verify, trust, and govern across the internet. The partnership centers on Agent Name Service, or ANS, an open standard that gives AI agents a human-readable name and a cryptographically verifiable identity.
The companies said the goal is to help small and medium-sized businesses use AI agents without losing visibility into who built them or whether they are legitimate. As AI agents move beyond simple chat and into independent task execution, both companies argue that identity and accountability have become essential.
Why the partnership matters
AI agents are now being deployed across different platforms and can communicate with each other, complete tasks, and act with a degree of autonomy. That shift creates a new trust problem, because users often cannot easily confirm an agent’s source, publisher, or authorization.
ANS tries to solve that gap by using the same core internet infrastructure that supports domains and digital certificates. Each registered agent gets a unique name and a verified identity, which allows it to be discovered and checked across the open web.
GoDaddy said it helped turn the ANS concept into a working public system through GoDaddy ANS, which it describes as the first public implementation of the standard. The company says the platform lets users publish and verify agents in minutes.
LegalZoom becomes an early user
LegalZoom registered its first AI agent using GoDaddy ANS, making it one of the early companies to apply the standard in a real business setting. The registered agent is a Model Context Protocol, or MCP, server that connects LegalZoom’s legal services directly to AI assistants such as Anthropic’s Claude.
The setup allows users to connect with real attorneys, scan and share legal documents, and manage legal consultations through AI tools. GoDaddy said the verification process confirms that the agent is genuinely owned and operated by LegalZoom, using DNS as the root of trust.
How ANS works in practice
- Each AI agent is published as a DNS record.
- Any person or system can verify the agent’s origin through a DNS query.
- Cryptographic proof links the agent to a verified domain.
- ANS-compatible registries can support the same standard.
This structure is designed to help other AI systems locate trusted agents at internet scale, not just human users. It also gives organizations a way to show that an agent is authorized and tied to a real business.
Aaron Stibel, chief customer and business officer at LegalZoom, said AI agents will change how legal services are delivered, but their value depends on “verifiable identity and human accountability.” He said the partnership with GoDaddy allows LegalZoom to publish its MCP agent on ANS and deliver trusted legal experiences across the open web.
A broader push for trust in AI
GoDaddy views the partnership as part of a wider effort to make the AI ecosystem safer and more open for business. Travis Muhlestein, chief technology officer of product AI at GoDaddy, said trust is “the currency of online business” and that every organization that registers an agent helps strengthen the standard.
For LegalZoom, the move fits its long-running model of combining technology with attorney oversight. The company said AI can improve speed and efficiency, but legal work still needs professional judgment and accountability.
The partnership also highlights how domain infrastructure is being adapted for the AI era, as companies look for methods that can scale with autonomous systems. By linking AI agents to verified domains and public identity checks, GoDaddy and LegalZoom are positioning ANS as a trust layer for the next phase of the internet.
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