AI shopping agents are starting to buy on behalf of consumers. They search, compare, negotiate, and pay without a person clicking checkout. This shift, often called agentic commerce, is moving quickly from idea to practice. For merchants, it creates a new kind of buyer: one that is software driven, fast, and unpredictable. It also exposes weak spots. When a payment service provider (PSP) fails, these automated buyers cannot adapt without the right infrastructure. Lost transactions, poor customer experience, and higher support demand follow.
Companies preparing for this change are looking at payment orchestration. Orchestration helps merchants build payment flows that can reroute instantly, add new fraud tools, and handle multiple providers through one integration. It already helps global businesses manage PSP downtime and regional compliance. The same flexibility will be essential as AI-driven checkouts become mainstream.
Agentic payments happen when an AI agent — rather than a human — initiates and completes a transaction. Unlike rule-based automation, these agents make decisions in real time. They can pick merchants, compare prices, and select payment methods based on context rather than a fixed script.
Early adopters describe it as a step beyond machine learning. Traditional fraud systems, for example, train on labeled data to score transactions. Agentic systems instead adjust their logic as they operate, acting more like a digital assistant than a predefined filter.
For merchants, this means checkout is no longer limited to people using a browser or app. Transactions may arrive through APIs or automated agents that do not follow human patterns. A buyer could ask an AI to reorder weekly groceries or book travel, and the agent would complete the task — including payment — with little or no user interaction.
These new behaviors demand a payment stack built for adaptability. Static integrations tied to one PSP or gateway will struggle to support AI-driven flows. Merchants already modernising their infrastructure for cross-border trade — as explained in Why payment orchestration matters for merchants expanding cross-border — are better positioned to handle this next wave.
Liability is unclear
When an AI agent buys on behalf of a person, the traditional buyer–merchant relationship becomes uncertain. If the agent misorders or purchases the wrong item, the human customer may dispute the charge. Existing chargeback systems were not designed for non-human shoppers. Merchants could face more friendly fraud, where the user claims a refund because the agent’s decision did not match their intent.
Brand visibility can disappear
Some current shopping agents mask the merchant’s name on bank statements. Instead of your store appearing, the consumer may only see the platform or AI service they used. This weakens post-sale trust and loyalty, making it harder to manage disputes or build recognition.
Fraud tools may misfire
Fraud detection systems often flag non-human behavior. Today’s device fingerprinting and bot-detection models can mistakenly block legitimate AI agents. As AI-driven checkout grows, merchants need fraud strategies that distinguish safe automated buyers from real attacks. Using orchestration helps by letting merchants centralize fraud tools and replace or upgrade them without new integrations. Our guide on fraud prevention for ecommerce explains how layered defenses can evolve with new buying models.
Authentication is not ready
Current checkout authentication assumes a human buyer. Tools like 3-D Secure and Strong Customer Authentication were built for browsers and apps, not for autonomous agents. When an AI pays on behalf of a person, there is no shared way to prove that the buyer is authorized. Transactions may be declined as fraud or, worse, approved without proper validation.
John Lunn pointed out on Behind the Checkout that the industry lacks standards for this: merchants will need “a way to verify that an agent has been authorized by a real consumer before allowing payment.” Until such systems exist, both fraud and false declines will increase.
Fraud detection needs a rethink
Most fraud tools rely on device fingerprinting and behavior patterns that expect human activity. Soups Ranjan noted that “most agentic browsers still look like bots” to current detection systems. This means genuine AI-driven purchases could be blocked, while new attack types slip through.
Merchants must rethink fraud prevention. As explained in fraud prevention for ecommerce: best practices for merchants, layered detection and flexible tooling are essential. Orchestration helps by letting you integrate and swap fraud providers quickly without rebuilding your stack.
Fake merchants and spoofed sites
AI buyers can be tricked. Fraudsters already create fake stores that look legitimate to humans; automated agents are easier to fool. Lunn warned that a bot searching for the cheapest item could land on a scam site because “you can set up hundreds of convincing stores and the agent will find them first.”
To remain trusted, merchants should provide verified API endpoints and clear identifiers that future trusted-agent directories can use.
Resilience against PSP outages
AI-driven transactions demand uninterrupted uptime. If a PSP fails, automated checkouts stall instantly. Payment orchestration gives merchants a single control layer to connect multiple PSPs and switch traffic in real time. Instead of losing sales when a provider goes down, you can reroute payments seamlessly.
The article payment orchestration vs PSP shows how relying on a single processor exposes businesses to costly downtime. Those lessons apply directly to AI-driven buying.
Smarter routing and payment choice
Orchestration lets you manage multiple payment methods and dynamically select the best path. This keeps agentic checkouts fast and reliable. You can set fallback rules if a card fails or a PSP is unavailable, so the AI does not cancel the purchase.
Centralized fraud and compliance
With orchestration, merchants can test and upgrade fraud tools without rebuilding integrations. You can add AI-aware detection or replace outdated systems as agents evolve. It also simplifies complex regulations such as PSD3 and Strong Customer Authentication. Articles like embedded payments compliance in Europe show how orchestration keeps evolving rules manageable.
Data portability for the future
Future agentic commerce will depend on better authentication and new payment rails. Merchants using orchestration with tokenization and portable vaulting can adapt without disruption. Instead of being locked to one PSP, you keep control of customer credentials and can support new standards as they appear.
To prepare for AI-driven checkout, merchants should:
The article why payment orchestration matters for merchants expanding cross-border explains how the same flexibility helps with regulation and local payment diversity — the same strategy will help with agentic buyers.
Some industries are more likely to embrace agentic payments early. Grocery delivery and everyday essentials are prime candidates because the tasks are repetitive and predictable. Travel booking is another area where customers already face complex comparisons and tedious data entry. Soups Ranjan described this type of automation as “making the technology around it more efficient, more API based,” so that agents can work faster and reduce friction for users.
B2B payments could also change significantly. Invoices, reconciliation, and approval workflows are still manual in many companies. Agentic systems could automate these checks, paying suppliers automatically when terms match previous patterns. For high-value retail and luxury goods, adoption may be slower. People still want to control expensive or emotional purchases themselves.
Experts also expect a co-pilot stage before full autonomy. AI will assist with recommendations and checkout but leave final approval to the user. Full hands-off shopping will require stronger authentication and clear liability rules.
John Lunn observed that “there is no clear standard yet for authenticating AI shoppers or handling liability if something goes wrong.” This means the next few years will likely focus on building those standards. Trusted agent directories, merchant verification, and better fraud signals are likely to emerge.
New payment rails may also appear. AI shoppers could use virtual cards, specialized wallets, or even stablecoins if on-boarding and compliance become simpler. Merchants should expect rapid experimentation in how AI agents hold and spend funds.
Payment orchestration will remain a bridge while these standards develop. Platforms that provide multi-PSP routing, token portability, and real-time failover will help merchants stay resilient as buying patterns shift. Articles like payment orchestration vs PSP and acquirer fee optimization show how orchestration already supports complex routing and cost control. The same strategies will apply when AI agents become routine buyers.
What are agentic payments?
Payments initiated and completed by AI agents that act on behalf of human users. These agents search, compare, and check out automatically.
How do agentic payments differ from machine learning or simple automation?
Machine learning follows pre-trained models. Agentic AI can adapt its decision-making while it runs, changing how it shops and pays based on context.
Are merchants liable if an AI buyer makes a wrong purchase?
Current chargeback rules were built for human shoppers. Liability is still unclear. Merchants may face more friendly fraud until new standards define who is responsible.
How should merchants protect against fraud with AI shoppers?
Use adaptive fraud tools and an orchestration layer to test and swap providers. Keep detection flexible enough to distinguish trusted agents from malicious bots. See fraud prevention for ecommerce: best practices for merchants for guidance.
How does payment orchestration support agentic commerce?
It lets merchants connect multiple PSPs, build failover routing, centralize fraud tools, and stay flexible as new authentication and payment standards appear.
AI-driven payments will grow steadily. Merchants that act early will avoid outages, false declines, and fraud while staying visible to both human and agent buyers. Building an API-first checkout and using payment orchestration to manage PSPs, fraud, and compliance will protect revenue as agentic commerce matures.
Contact Gr4vy to learn how our orchestration platform helps you stay resilient and ready for the next generation of payments.
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