Signal · Agentic payments
When software pays you, who is behind the order?
Software is starting to buy on people’s behalf, and a cleared card says nothing about which agent ordered, for whom, or with what permission. On 11 September 2026 Ant International announced the first phase of a protocol meant to carry that information, and said it has begun work with Mastercard and Visa on a shared way to identify agents. Our read: it’s a direction to prepare for, not a finished system.
Published
An order placed by software
Four questions to ask before you trust it
Our checklist for owners, not the protocol’s message order, fields or format.
A card payment answers one question: is this card good for this amount? An order from an agent, software acting for a person, raises three more.
Which agent is this?
- What you’d want
- A lasting ID for the software that placed the order.
Without it, every agent looks alike, and you can’t stop a bad one without stopping them all.
Who is it acting for?
- What you’d want
- A way to reach the person or account it acted for.
Without it, you’re the only party anyone can find in a dispute.
What was it allowed to do?
- What you’d want
- The customer’s permission, recorded where you can check it, not only inside the agent.
Without it, “the customer approved it” can’t be checked by anyone but the agent.
What did the card check prove?
- What you’d want
- Proof the money is good, with the other three answers kept as separate facts.
If all four collapse into “the card cleared”, the risk lands on whoever served the customer.
Each question is cheaper to answer before the money moves than after. Serving the customer is a fifth thing, and no payment proves it.
What changed
What Ant International announced on 11 September
The first phase of its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP): openly published rules for how an agent presents itself when it pays. The first two groups are as Ant International reported them.
Announced for Phase I, not shown live
- Ten wallets, the payment apps people already use, which Ant International says will support AMP during Phase I: Alipay, AlipayHK, DANA, GCash, KakaoPay, MPay, TNG eWallet, TrueMoney, Toss and Starryblu.
- Seven acquirers, the companies that process card payments for a business (your payment provider is one): Adyen, Allinpay, Checkout.com, Fiserv, Global Payments, Nuvei and Worldline.
- Ant International says those ten wallets serve 1.5 billion user accounts.
- AMP open-sourced on GitHub, with code, developer kits and documentation.
Work that has begun
- Ant International says it has begun collaboration with Mastercard and Visa on a Know Your Agent framework, a shared way to check the software itself, like the identity checks banks run on people. There’s no completed standard, launch date or coverage commitment.
Not shown
- That any merchant has switched this on, or that a named wallet or acquirer has finished its side.
- Any purchases or value: the announcement reports no transaction volume.
- Any effect on fraud, chargebacks or disputes.
- Who you call when an agent’s order is disputed: the announcement doesn’t say.
How to read the names and the numbers
A named participant is a participant named in a rollout announcement, not a statement that it’s live for a given merchant, market or checkout.
The 1.5 billion counts wallet accounts, not agents, orders or purchases. It describes possible reach, not activity.
Published code is an invitation to build. It isn’t evidence that anyone has finished building it, and we haven’t audited the specification.
Where it fits
It aims at the payment, not the whole journey
From a search to a served table there are seven steps, and each can happen without the next. The protocol aims at two of them, approval and payment, and doesn’t address the other five.
What the protocol aims to carry
- Customer approval: that a real person agreed to this purchase, at this price
- Payment: who was acting, and on whose behalf, attached to the money
What it doesn’t address
- Unpaid discovery: whether an assistant, map or search shows your restaurant at all
- Paid exposure: whether you’re shown because a placement was bought
- Referral: whether a customer is handed on to you
- Enquiry: whether they ask about a table or a booking
- Fulfilment: whether the table is held, the party arrives and the food is served
The announcement establishes an aim; delivery is not shown. That’s enough to prepare for, not to treat as a finished system.
What to do
Six things to do before you need them
None of this is a project. It’s knowing the answers before someone asks under pressure.
Ask your payment provider in writing
Do they take part in agent-identification work, and what will they show you about a payment an agent starts? Keep the answer; it dates quickly.
Find out if agent orders already reach you
Ask each booking channel, marketplace and payment provider which order details they expose, such as source, integration ID or an automation flag, then count those orders for a month.
Record approval apart from payment
Your order system should say who approved a purchase, not only that the charge cleared; the two get disputed separately.
Give managers a rule for odd orders
One line: what to accept, what to confirm with a person, and who to escalate to, the same in every location.
Keep each location’s facts right
Hours, address, service area, menu and prices are what a buying agent acts on. This is discovery work, not payment work, and it’s the part you control today.
Revisit when a standard is published
Wait for a Know Your Agent framework with a published specification and named adopters on your payment provider, not more announcements.
Keep reading
Before any agent reaches the payment
Payment is the last step. The facts an agent reads first are the part you control today.
Sources
Where this comes from
One source: Ant International’s announcement. Participants and figures are as Ant International published them; we haven’t verified them. Obenan has no partnership, endorsement, certification, pilot, integration or special access with Ant International, Mastercard, Visa or any wallet or acquirer named here.
- Ant International’s Agentic Mobile Protocol rolls out globally with wallets and acquirers, initiating collaboration on a KYA interoperability framework with Mastercard and Visa
Ant International Published Checked
The Phase I wallets and acquirers, the 1.5 billion wallet accounts, the open-source release, and the Know Your Agent collaboration with Mastercard and Visa.