Industry-Wide Trends

EMVCo Framework Targets Consumer Intent in Agentic Payments

EMVCo is building the technical bridge to let AI bots securely shop and pay for customers while reducing merchant fraud risk.

AI agents are starting to shop and pay for things on behalf of your customers. A new framework from EMVCo aims to standardize how these 'agentic payments' work. Currently, when an AI bot makes a purchase, the merchant and bank don't really know if the bot has the authority to spend that money. This lack of transparency leads to fraud risks and declined transactions. The new standards will allow cards to carry data about exactly what the consumer authorized the AI to do. For retailers, this is a major shift in how you handle checkouts. In the near future, you may not be interacting with a human, but with a digital assistant programmed with strict spending limits. This technology will help verify that a bot isn't overstepping its bounds. It reduces the risk of chargebacks where a customer claims their AI bought something without permission. It also opens the door for 'set-it-and-forget-it' shopping in sectors like home improvement supplies or recurring medical needs. If your payment systems aren't ready to talk to these AI agents, you could see a rise in failed payments as banks tighten security on automated transactions.

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