FIDO wrestles with agentic trust

AI agents are moving closer to making autonomous purchases on behalf of your customers, but a major hurdle remains: trust and identity verification. The FIDO Alliance, which sets global standards for secure logins, is now tackling 'agentic commerce.' This involves creating protocols so a retailer’s checkout system can verify that an AI bot is actually authorized by a specific human to spend their money. For retailers, this represents the next evolution beyond simple recurring subscriptions. Soon, a customer's personal AI might shop for the best financing terms, apply for credit, and complete a transaction without the human ever clicking a 'buy' button. The challenge for merchants lies in the 'handshake' between your payment gateway and these AI agents. Current fraud prevention tools are built to detect human behavior, like typing speeds or mouse movements. Agentic commerce replaces that with machine-to-machine communication. While this could lead to higher conversion rates by removing human friction, it also requires new security standards to ensure your business isn't liable for unauthorized bot purchases. Industry leaders are working to ensure these agents can prove their identity through standardized digital credentials, much like how Apple Pay or passkeys work today.

Source: Payments Dive

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