Briefing · Payments and AI agents
Card networks are teaching AI agents to pay. Only you can say what’s for sale.
Visa, Mastercard and American Express are building ways for AI agents to pay for a customer: some in pilots or live in a few markets, much of it still announced or in development. A payment connection can carry the money. It can’t tell a customer whether your price, your stock or your 10:30 slot is real. Those facts stay yours to keep current, and to confirm again before the customer pays.
Published Updated
The split
The network moves the money. You keep the offer true.
Payment networks can approve a payment and move money. Only the business knows what it can sell, when it can deliver and which terms apply. A purchase made by an AI agent needs both sides to be clear at the moment the customer commits.
What the payment networks are building
- Ways for an AI agent to make an authenticated payment
- Card tokens, which stand in for the real card number
- Spending controls the customer sets
- Checks on whether the agent placing the order can be trusted
What only you can keep right
- What you sell, including services, not just products
- Prices, stock and free appointment slots
- Who qualifies: age, membership, service area, delivery limits
- Deposits, booking rules and cancellation terms
Our read: no payment network maintains your prices, slots or terms for you, so an agent can only make a safe offer from facts you keep current.
April to September 2026
Six moves that show agent payments taking shape
Each is dated and says how far it has got: some announced, some in pilots, some live in a few markets.
Visa · 8 April 2026
One connection for several AI payment systems
Visa announced Intelligent Commerce Connect, bringing payment, card tokens, spending controls, merchant discovery and several AI commerce protocols into one integration. Visa said pilots were live.
Mastercard · 6 and 7 April 2026
Agent payments live in two markets, and a ride-booking pilot
Mastercard said authenticated agent transactions were live in Singapore and Malaysia, with more Southeast Asian markets to follow. Separately, it reported a controlled ride-booking pilot in Thailand with Krungthai Card and Elife.
American Express · by 14 April 2026
Parts of its agent system published, parts still in development
American Express listed specifications for account access, understanding what a customer wants to buy, and payment credentials. It said agent registration and cart details were still under development.
Universal Commerce Protocol · 9 April 2026
A published protocol separates browsing from checkout
The Universal Commerce Protocol is an open-source project published on GitHub, not one of the card networks. Its release 2026-04-08 covers carts, catalogue search, eligibility checks, totals and disclosures. It keeps early browsing information apart from the final details confirmed at checkout.
France’s competition authority · 17 July 2026
A regulator asks for open, compatible systems
Opinion 26-A-05 said agent-made purchases were not yet available in France, and recommended interoperability, real data portability and open standards. It is advice, not a ruling in any case.
Ant International · 11 September 2026
A payment protocol starts rolling out with named partners
Ant International said its Agentic Mobile Protocol moved into a first rollout phase with ten named wallets and seven named acquirers, the companies that accept and settle payments for a business. It said it had begun work with Mastercard and Visa on checks of the agent itself.
The detail behind each move, and its limits
Mastercard said it planned to expand agent payments into travel, entertainment and retail. American Express also named technology, payment, travel and hospitality companies in the wider ecosystem around its Agentic Commerce Experiences.
The Universal Commerce Protocol release also covers signed requests, errors, authorisation and signals of misuse. It is not a universal standard today: American Express, Mastercard Agent Pay, Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect and other systems keep developing in parallel.
A protocol here means a published, documented format any company can build against; Ant International’s is now open source. The named wallets and acquirers are Ant International’s own partners. Being named in a rollout announcement is not evidence that any business has switched anything on, that its details have been verified, or that a payment has gone through.
The Know Your Agent work, meaning checks on the software doing the buying rather than on the person, is described by the parties as a collaboration that has begun. It is not an agreed standard, a published specification or a shipped product, and each network keeps its own checks and decisions.
France’s Opinion 26-A-05 is not a partnership, endorsement, certification or enforcement finding, and it does not decide any future competition case.
None of these connections is complete for every local service. Live appointment slots, temporary holds, deposits and accepting service terms still depend on the business’s own systems, and may differ by provider.
September 2026
Checking the agent is not checking your offer
Both sources checked on 5 October 2026.
Two September sources move forward on trusting the agent and on what banks expect. Neither tells an agent what you can actually sell or book.
Mastercard · 30 September 2026
A score for how likely it is that an AI agent made the purchase
- Status
- Rolling out for testing in the United States; Mastercard says it will add further signals over time.
Mastercard described a score meant to give card issuers, the banks behind a customer’s card, confidence to approve genuine agent purchases. A likelihood is not a confirmed identity, and the score doesn’t check a business’s stock, prices or booking terms.
CommBank · 23 September 2026
Six banks publish shared principles
- Status
- Joint principles; how to apply them is still to be worked out. Not law, not a mandatory network rule and not a launched integration.
CommBank said it published agentic-commerce principles with ASB Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, ING Group and NatWest Group, covering transparency, safety, privacy and data, choice, and interoperability. The banks call it a starting point for discussion.
What these two sources don’t show
Mastercard also says it is exploring, with Cloudflare, ways to see network signals about agents.
Both sources describe the named networks, banks and their publications. They don’t establish an integration with Obenan, a business going live, a booking or a customer sale.
From search to payment
The step in the middle is yours
An agent’s purchase runs through four steps. The payment side is getting clearer. The step that decides whether the offer is real has no one but you behind it.
The agent finds you
Through search, a feed or a recommendation. Visa and the Universal Commerce Protocol have described ways to support this.
Being built
The agent checks your facts
Before it shows a firm offer, the agent needs who you are, your price, what’s free, who qualifies and your current terms. No public payment network keeps all of these for you.
Up to you
You confirm one offer
At checkout, you confirm exactly what you will honour. The protocol, Mastercard and American Express describe parts of this exchange, but the final answer is yours.
Partly described
The agent pays
An authenticated payment with card tokens and network controls. This is the part Visa, Mastercard and American Express are building.
Being built
An offer an agent shows while browsing has to be confirmed again when the customer checks out, with the exact price, time and terms you will honour.
When agents reach your trade
What ready looks like, and what goes wrong
Ready
- An agent’s request can be matched to what you sell today
- It can check availability and who qualifies before showing a firm offer
- Price, booking rules, service details and cancellation terms are confirmed before payment
Not ready
- The payment works, but you can’t return one current offer with a price and clear terms
- An agent shows an offer while browsing that you can’t honour at checkout
- A new network specification arrives, and your catalogue and booking details can’t connect to it
Payment permission
Permission to pay needs limits
Knowing who a customer is and knowing what their agent may spend are different checks.
Confirm who gave permission
IDEMIA’s announcement describes checking consent before releasing a payment token and using a passkey to authenticate the cardholder. A passkey identifies the person; it does not set the agent’s spending permission.
Set the spending limits
IDEMIA describes tokens restricted by business, amount, category or time, with consent evidence kept for disputes. These are announced controls, not evidence of a merchant rollout.
Before you accept the order, still confirm the price, stock or booking slot and the terms. Payment permission cannot confirm those for you.
What to do now
Three steps before AI shopping reaches your trade
Each one works whichever payment network an agent uses.
Put what you sell in one clear list
Names, descriptions, prices, options, service areas and IDs in one consistent structure, with services included even where the specifications published by April 2026 focus on retail goods.
Keep availability and eligibility current
Make stock, appointment slots, opening hours, delivery limits, age or membership rules, deposits and cancellation terms easy to check, and check them again before the customer pays.
Answer with one offer that has an end time
When an agent asks to buy or book, return the exact item or service, price, time, customer requirements and terms you will honour, and say how long that answer stays valid.
Keep reading
Related Briefings and Signals
Why your facts come before the payment, and two closer looks at what the networks have done.
- Merchant truth before agentic paymentsWhy reliable business information has to exist before an AI agent can make a safe payment promise.Read the Briefing
- Payment networks are learning to identify the agentThe named wallets and acquirers, the open-source release, and exactly how far the Know Your Agent work, checks on the buying software, has got.Read the Signal
- Mastercard’s ride booking in ThailandWhat the reported 7 April transaction shows, and what it still doesn’t solve for local services.Read the Signal
Getting your business facts ready for AI agents
Write to Obenan if you want to talk it through, or see how we approach merchant infrastructure.
Sources
Where this comes from
Based on the public sources below: announcements, specifications, a transaction report, a policy opinion and coverage of payment controls. They don’t show that every market or business can use agent payments today. Obenan is not a payment network or payment provider, no business using Obenan is certified by any specification cited here, and these sources establish no integration with Obenan, business going live, booking or customer sale.
- Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect announcement
Visa Published Checked
Intelligent Commerce Connect, the protocols and payment capabilities Visa says it brings into one connection, and its live pilots.
- Mastercard Agent Pay multi-region expansion
Mastercard Published Checked
Agent Pay activity in Singapore and Malaysia, the markets to follow, and Mastercard’s description of Verifiable Intent.
- Mastercard and Krungthai Card live agentic ride-booking in Thailand
Mastercard Published Checked
The authenticated AI-agent ride booking in Thailand with Krungthai Card.
- American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences
American Express Published Checked
Published and planned capabilities, purchase protection and the named companies around American Express’s agent system.
- UCP release v2026-04-08 on GitHub
Universal Commerce Protocol (GitHub) Published Checked
The release covering carts, catalogue lookup, signing, eligibility, authorisation, misuse signals, totals and disclosures.
- French competition authority Opinion 26-A-05 on AI agents
Autorité de la concurrence Published Checked
The French market context, the recommendations on interoperability, data portability and open standards, and the opinion’s advisory limits.
- Ant International Agentic Mobile Protocol Phase I rollout and KYA interoperability collaboration
Ant International Published Checked
The Phase I rollout, its named wallet and acquiring partners, the open-source release and the start of the Know Your Agent collaboration with Mastercard and Visa.
- Mastercard investor release
Mastercard Published Checked
The agent-likelihood score in US testing, the further signals planned and the exploration with Cloudflare.
- CommBank newsroom
CommBank Published Checked
The shared agentic-commerce principles of six banks, presented as a foundation for discussion.
- IDEMIA Secure Transactions
IDEMIA Secure Transactions / PR Newswire Published Checked
IDEMIA-issued announcement of payment controls, published through PR Newswire; no named merchant deployment.
- ID Tech / FIDO In the News
FIDO Alliance / ID Tech Published Checked
ID Tech coverage republished in FIDO’s In the News section; not independent deployment validation.