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in revenues generated from agentic commerce; global surcharging for merchants in compliance with card-brand
projections run between $3 trillion and $5 trillion. The rules and state laws, has now set his sights on what AI can
investment bank Morgan Stanley has a more modest do to support card payments.
prediction; it expects $385 billion in U.S. ecommerce
spending will be tied to agentic commerce by 2030. Still Razi sees agentic commerce as a two-part automation
a sizable sum. Regardless of the total spending expected, process: product discovery and autonomous execution of
there will be, McKinsey noted, both benefits and risks the payment. He expects the most value for agents that can
for the commerce ecosystem, with all types of businesses discover the best products for the best prices within the
needing to adapt to navigate the challenges of trust, risk parameters set by the customer. "There's already so much
and innovation. friction that's been taken out of the checkout," he said.
"There is not really much more that's achievable through
In early July, the financial technology company Nuvei, AI."
said it had completed a proof-of-concept with Visa, Arvato
Systems and the fashion brand Kings and Priests, where "Agentic commerce is one opportunity in payments, but
the merchant's AI agent initiated a product purchase on a it's just one, and there are so many operating processes
shopper's behalf and paid inside the agent, with no hand- that can be remade with AI to take out all that manual
off to a separate payment flow. work," Razi said in a recent interview. "And it's a whole
new source of savings for the merchant." This is also a
Multiple issuers across Europe took part in completing money-making opportunity for acquirers and their sales
agentic payments settled live on Visa rails using a tokenized partners, he stated. Think in terms of fraud controls,
Visa credential within Visa Intelligent Commerce, the card reporting, disputes and other labor-intensive processes.
company's AI protocol. And everything was governed
by shopper-set guardrails, including spending caps and AI beyond payments
approved purchase categories, Nuvei explained in a July Razi, who sold CardX to Stax Payments in 2021, is building
2 press release. Findustry to leverage generative AI for labor-intensive
areas of payments. For example, if AI agents are put to work
"Agentic commerce is the next evolution of digital executing payments on behalf of consumers, it's a safe bet
commerce, with AI not just finding products but initiating that disputes will ensue, and disputes are already on the
purchases," said Phil Fayer, chair and CEO of Nuvei. "This rise with the boom in ecommerce, Razi said. Referencing
proof of concept starts inside a merchant's own experience data compiled by Visa, Razi noted that disputes rose 35
and points to where payments are heading: a layer that percent between 2019 and 2025. Hence the need for AI
lets any agent, on any protocol, make a payment." solutions that automate chargeback workflows.

Also in early July, BBVA, headquartered in Madrid, Richard Crone, CEO of Crone Consulting LLC, offered
and Visa, revealed they had completed an AI-initiated a similar assessment. "For merchants, the next logical
transaction for a cardholder as part of a program Visa calls step is broader than payments," he said, adding it's about
Visa Agentic Ready. answering questions like should I reorder this SKU,
change pricing, adjust labor, launch a campaign, change
To support the strong customer authentication (SCA) tender mix, draw credit, analyze disputes?
requirements of the European Union, the transaction,
in addition to Visa Intelligent Commerce, used payment The real opportunities for merchants, and the answers to
passkeys, a biometric authentication method that enables these questions, Crone said, will accrue from generative
consumers to authorize online payments securely without AI applications. (GenAI uses machine learning algorithms
passwords or SMS codes. to generate text, images or other desired output.) Crone
pointed to the recent release of ChatGPT Finances, which
"This milestone within Visa's Agentic Ready program can securely connect the chat bot to an individual's or
confirms that agentic payments can function in a real- business's bank, credit card and investment accounts. In
world purchasing environment while fully maintaining March of this year, Intuit, the company behind Quickbooks
cardholder consent, issuer oversight and compliance with and other popular financial apps, said it had integrated
existing protections," the two companies stated in a press with Chat GTP.
release.

'Very early stages' But while most businesses are using Generative AI, they
aren't all using ChatGTP, Crone added. For example,
So where does all this activity place agentic commerce they might be integrating their business management
on a developmental scale? "I think it's very early stages," software with Anthropic's Claude or Google Gemini.
said Jonathan Razi, founder of Findustry AI. "And right So, it's important that acquirers and processors have
now I think it has more builders than users." Razi, the the technology in place to integrate with an array of AI
Harvard-educated attorney and founder of CardX, a engines, he stated.
financial technology platform that automates credit card

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