Ant Group, the financial affiliate of China's Alibaba Group, is partnering with American credit card companies Visa and Mastercard to establish new standards for AI agent payments.
On September 10, Ant International, the overseas division of Ant Group, announced the signing of a partnership agreement aimed at developing these standards.
The collaboration centers on the principle of 'Know Your Agent,' which aims to create new payment criteria. Just as individuals verify their identity with banks or credit card companies, AI agents will also need to confirm the legitimacy and reliability of the programs they represent.
Notably, AI agents do not always make accurate judgments. There is a phenomenon known as 'hallucination,' where AI can generate false information that appears real.
Jiang Jingming, Chief Innovation Officer of Ant International, highlighted the importance of ensuring users feel secure, given the potential for AI agents to misrepresent information.
To address this, the three companies plan to establish common standards that link each AI agent to real businesses or services and create a system to evaluate the behavior of these agents. This initiative aims to enhance interoperability, allowing AI agents to function smoothly across different payment systems. Jiang stated, 'If an agent is registered with Ant, there will be no need to register again with Visa or Mastercard.'
Over the past year, Visa, Mastercard, and Ant International have each unveiled their own protocols to ensure safe transactions via AI agents. This collaboration is seen as a move to create common standards that will allow their independently developed systems to interconnect.
Pablo Perez, Chief Digital Officer of Mastercard, emphasized that for commerce using AI agents to expand on a large scale, different 'agent identity verification' systems must be compatible. He stressed the need for merchants and payment providers to have a unified standard for assessing the trustworthiness of AI agents.
This initiative comes as the market for 'agent-based commerce,' where AI agents place orders or access services on behalf of users, is expected to grow rapidly. Global consulting firm McKinsey predicts that by 2030, AI agents will handle transactions worth between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global consumer commerce.
Visa and Mastercard's partnership with Ant Financial is particularly significant as electronic wallet payments are more common than credit card transactions in many emerging markets. According to global payment service provider Worldpay, electronic wallets accounted for 56% of online shopping payments and 33% of offline payments worldwide last year, with total payment volumes exceeding $13 trillion.
Ant International has been expanding its global payment network through partnerships with electronic wallets. Its parent company, Ant Group, operates the mobile payment service Alipay in China, and Ant International has partnered with over 50 electronic wallets through 'Alipay Plus.'
Recently, Alipay has also been expanding its payment services utilizing AI. On September 9, Alipay introduced a service that allows users to regularly order Starbucks drinks or summon rides from Chinese ride-hailing company Didi using AI. Users can request Alipay to 'buy a Starbucks iced Americano every day at 10 AM,' and the AI will place the order at the specified time, subsequently prompting the user for payment.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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