Agentic commerce

Instead of a person browsing a store and typing card details, an agent receives a request such as booking a flight under a budget, finds options, negotiates or compares and completes the purchase. To do that safely, it needs delegated permission to pay, proof that the user authorised the purchase and a way for the merchant to trust a non-human buyer.

Large technology, card and payment companies have announced protocols for this, mostly built on existing cards and tokenised credentials. Crypto proponents argue that stablecoins and smart wallets fit naturally, since an agent can hold a balance with programmed limits, pay per use and settle instantly worldwide, and protocols such as x402 target exactly that.

Much of agentic commerce is still at the pilot stage. Unresolved issues include who bears the loss when an agent buys the wrong item or is tricked by a fraudulent store, how chargebacks work when stablecoin payments are final, and how consumer protection rules apply. Calling every chatbot with a checkout button agentic commerce overstates where the market is.