Payment giant PayPal and tech firm Google Cloud say cryptocurrency-based payment infrastructure will play a central role in the future of “agentic commerce.”
In this model, artificial intelligence agents can independently make purchases, negotiate services, and settle payments without human intervention.
Executives from both companies argued that traditional payment systems are not designed for AI-driven transactions during a Consensus Miami conference.
Rich Widmann, Global Head of Strategy for Web3 at Google Cloud, stressed that AI agent interaction in the current web environment is poorly designed.
“An agent can’t get a bank account. It’s not just hard; it’s impossible, due to both technological and regulatory challenges,” he said. Widmann described crypto as an excellent machine-readable interface for payments.
The discussion comes as major technology and fintech firms race to build standards for autonomous AI commerce.
According to conference materials, emerging systems such as Coinbase-backed x402, Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), and other agent-payment frameworks are designed to allow AI agents to pay for APIs, compute power, digital services, and online goods in real time.
AI agents’ contribution to the financial sector sparks heated discussions in the ecosystem.
Recent comments from Google Cloud and PayPal’s senior officials cast a serious gaze on the possibility of structural financial change in the future of commerce.
Source: X.com
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