Agentic commerce
Agentic commerce refers to purchases and payments that an AI agent selects and carries out on behalf of a person or a company.
In agentic commerce, an agent searches, compares and pays for its principal, from a ticket to a subscription to a reorder in a business. Payment networks and platforms have introduced their own approaches since 2025, including Mastercard Verifiable Intent, Google AP2, Visa Trusted Agent Protocol and the Agentic Commerce Protocol by OpenAI and Stripe.
All of them solve the same question: how does a merchant know that the agent was allowed to make this purchase? The answers differ in format but follow the same pattern of instruction, limits, execution and evidence.
Example
A purchasing agent may order printer cartridges for an office up to CHF 200 from three approved merchants. It finds the best offer at merchant A, orders and pays. Before accepting, merchant A checks whether amount and merchant fall within the limits.
How it differs
In e-commerce, people click and pay themselves. In agentic commerce, the agent takes over these steps. What sets it apart from classic bots is that it acts on behalf of a known customer and can prove it.
In practice
- As a merchant: recognize signed agents instead of blocking all automated traffic, and check the purchase limits before accepting.
- As a customer: grant agents only mandates with an amount limit and permitted merchants, and keep the option to revoke.
- For both: keep the evidence and the certificate, so a later dispute about a purchase can be settled quickly.
Role in KYA
KYA verifies agentic commerce evidence across vendors: today Mastercard Verifiable Intent, signed requests following Web Bot Auth and its own mandates. What counts is whether the purchase stayed within the permitted limits.
Related check: Scope of the action (intent_scope). Is the action within the mandate's action type, amount limit, currency and counterparty?
Frequently asked questions
What is agentic commerce?
Shopping and paying by AI agents on behalf of people or companies. The agent chooses products, compares offers and completes the purchase within limits its principal has set.
Which approaches exist for agentic commerce?
Among others, Mastercard Verifiable Intent, Google AP2, Visa Trusted Agent Protocol and the Agentic Commerce Protocol. They differ in format, yet all describe the instruction, limits and execution of a purchase.
What do merchants need to check in agentic commerce?
Whether the agent is known, which customer it acts for and whether the specific purchase lies within the permitted limits, such as amount, merchant and items. Verifiable evidence makes this decision traceable, even in a later dispute.