Benjamin David
Head of Intelligence, The Payments Association
Agentic commerce is moving from concept to reality. The challenge is ensuring payments infrastructure and governance can keep pace.
AI agents may already be buying from UK merchants. The payments industry is still working out who is responsible when they do.
Research from The Payments Association found that 58% of UK online merchants believe AI agents have already reached their platforms. Yet only 41% are very confident in the liability frameworks surrounding those transactions.
Meanwhile, 72% of merchants are actively preparing for agentic commerce. The market is moving from experimentation towards implementation, while the rules needed remain undefined. That changes the conversation for payments leaders. The challenge is not how AI agents might reshape the customer journey, but whether infrastructure can govern their transactions.
This is no longer just an emerging technology question
That uncertainty becomes consequential when an agent moves from recommending a purchase to making one. Authentication was a top concern for 32% of merchants in our research.
If an agent makes a purchase outside the parameters set by its user, who is responsible? How does a merchant know the agent has permission to make the transaction? What evidence of that authority should exist if the payment is disputed?
72% of merchants are actively preparing for agentic commerce
Merchants and payments providers need to know which agent they are dealing with, on whose behalf it acts and the authority it has been given. Answering those questions starts with proving an agent had permission to make the transaction.
Proving authority consistently requires interoperability. Card schemes and technology providers are developing different approaches to agent authentication and intent verification. Merchants may have to navigate several models before common standards emerge.
Merchants do not need to wait for standards to settle before preparing
Payments teams can start by examining whether existing controls can identify agent activity. They should establish who owns decisions about agentic transactions and ask PSPs how their infrastructure is evolving.
Agentic commerce will not wait for the payments industry to resolve questions of liability, authentication and interoperability. Merchants are already preparing. The infrastructure now needs to catch up.
