❯ Ant International, Visa and Mastercard Plan a Standard for AI-Agent Payments

Payment rulesAnt International, Visa and Mastercard plan to develop a standard for payments initiated by AI agents under user authorization, CNBC reported. The companies cited a McKinsey estimate that agentic commerce could reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030.

Authorization problemAn agent buying goods or services must prove who authorized it, how much it may spend and what it may buy, while preserving cancellation and recourse. Existing card verification identifies cardholders and merchants but does not fully encode task boundaries. The standard must work across issuers, acquirers and merchant systems. Verifiable mandates and transaction limits will determine acceptance.

Deployment thresholdPayment networks can distribute rules to merchants, while Ant International links cross-border wallets and sellers. Consumers need controllable, appealable agent payments. Technical specifications, pilot participants, fraud liability, privacy and refunds will decide whether merchants integrate and customers use them.

▪ SIGNALBefore an AI agent can move from recommending a purchase to paying, authorization, liability and refunds must become machine-executable rules.