The biggest names in enterprise software just drew a line in the sand. Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce are backing a new open standard called Agentic Resource Discovery, or ARD, designed to let AI agents automatically find and connect with the tools they need across corporate software stacks.
The specification, announced on June 17-18, represents a coordinated effort to shape how workplace AI automation evolves.
What ARD actually does
ARD uses something called ai-catalog.json manifests, which allow AI agents to query a centralized registry and discover what tools and other agents are available for a given task. Instead of an AI agent needing to be told exactly where to find every tool it might need, it can just look them up.
The system enables secure, intent-based searches. An AI agent can describe what it’s trying to accomplish, and ARD helps it locate the right resources without requiring custom-built connections for every possible combination of enterprise software.
