The agentic era is reshaping digital commerce from click-based journeys to delegated decisions, where AI systems discover, compare and transact on customers’ behalf. The strategic imperative for merchants is to become legible to machines and differentiated in the signals they emit—so their brand can be confidently selected and executed at scale.
Making this model viable depends on a trusted payments layer: verified agents, provable intent and consent within clear guardrails, and modern checkout capabilities centred around tokenisation and payment passkeys that reduce friction and fraud risk.
The priority for leaders is to align across the ecosystem on interoperable standards—so automation increases speed and relevance without compromising security, accountability or consumer choice.
This page shares insights and examples on how advanced digital payments enable secure, efficient transactions and prepare the ecosystem for future automated interactions.
Sources:
[1] Customer data, Just Eat Takeaway.com data, April 2025
[2] McKinsey, Consumer AI Discovery Survey, December 2025
[3] Edgar, Dunn & Company, Global Data, EDC Calculations, May 2025