Dikkasmedia
Banks and payment companies are preparing for a new challenge as artificial intelligence agents become increasingly capable of making purchases and carrying out financial transactions on behalf of consumers.
Unlike traditional online shopping, where a person directly selects a product and completes a payment, AI agents can potentially search for products, compare prices, make decisions and complete transactions with limited human involvement. This is forcing financial institutions to consider how they can identify and verify AI systems acting on behalf of customers.
A September 19 report by Dikkasmedia said AI agents could potentially orchestrate as much as $5 trillion in global consumer spending by 2030, citing a McKinsey report published earlier this year. The scale of potential spending is prompting banks, card networks and digital-wallet companies to examine how existing payment infrastructure will need to adapt.
One emerging concept is “know your agent,” a system designed to establish which AI agent is making a transaction, who owns or controls it and whether the consumer has authorised the purchase.
Ant International, the global payments arm of Ant Group, announced earlier in September that it was working with Mastercard and Visa on an interoperability framework designed to help card networks, digital wallets and marketplaces recognise trusted AI agents across different systems.
The initiative is being developed through BuildFin.ai, an industry platform convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The development addresses a fundamental difference between AI agents and traditional payment users. AI systems can be adaptive and may produce different results when given similar instructions, while financial payment networks require predictable rules, clear accountability and reliable transaction processing.
Financial institutions are therefore examining how to introduce additional safeguards around agent-driven payments. These could include verifying the identity of an AI agent, establishing spending limits, confirming authorisation and creating mechanisms for investigating disputed transactions.
The growth of AI-powered purchasing could eventually change how consumers interact with online businesses. Instead of personally visiting multiple websites to compare products, consumers could increasingly rely on AI agents to perform those tasks and complete purchases according to predetermined preferences.
However, the technology also creates new questions around security, fraud prevention and accountability. Banks will need to determine who is responsible when an AI agent makes an incorrect or unauthorised transaction.
As AI agents become more autonomous, the financial industry is therefore beginning to redesign parts of its infrastructure to accommodate a future in which software, rather than people alone, participates directly in everyday commerce.
