AI is already changing how people find and buy things online, comparing prices, narrowing down options, doing in seconds what used to take an afternoon of tabs open.
An AI agent could find a flight that fits your schedule, for example. Giving it permission to actually buy the ticket is a more complicated problem.
That is because most payment systems were built around people. Someone enters their card details, signs into an account, clicks approve. If software is going to complete more tasks on their own, they will also need a way to pay without stopping to ask permission every time.
There are signs this could become a much bigger part of how software works. Gartner expects agentic AI to be built into 33% of enterprise software applications by 2028, up from less than 1% in 2024. McKinsey estimates that AI agents could mediate between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030.
How those agents actually pay is now becoming its own technology problem. Mastercard, Coinbase, and blockchain networks, including XDC, are among those trying to solve it.
