Ready for agentic commerce.

New buying journeys need payments built on trust.

Agentic commerce payment on mobile during flight
Payment complete
Identity verified

Agentic commerce is here: AI agents that search, compare and buy on behalf of people and businesses, changing how consumers shop and how companies serve them. That shift is already moving wallet share, customer loyalty and payment flows, and it's only accelerating.

Worldline connects agent-driven journeys to the payment ecosystem that merchants, banks and consumers already rely on. Securely. Verifiably. Across Europe.

Explore what it means for your business
Experience the journey in our Innovation Centre in Paris

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is a form of digital commerce in which an AI agent can support or carry out parts of a buying journey on behalf of a consumer or business.

An agent may help search, compare and select an option. With the right instructions and approval, it may also initiate or support the payment. That changes more than the customer experience. It changes what payment infrastructure needs to recognise, authenticate, authorise and record.

What changes

Traditional ecommerce vs. agentic commerce

Traditional ecommerce

Agentic commerce
Who searches & chooses

The customer browses and decides

An AI agent searches, compares and shortlists on the customer's behalf
The moment of choice

On the merchant's site or app

Increasingly within the agent, before the merchant is reached
How merchants win

SEO, UX, brand, conversion design

Being discoverable and transactable by agents, and chosen by them
What payments must verify

That a human initiated the transaction

That the transaction reflects what the customer approved, whoever initiates it
Authentication

Customer authenticates directly at checkout

Consumer approval and authentication must travel with the agent
The bank's role

Authorises a human-initiated payment

Stays central to authentication, authorisation and trust, participating differently, not removed
Customer relationship

Direct between merchant and customer

Mediated by the agent, making trust and recognition essential

What's at stake when customers shop with agents?

When an AI agent does the searching, comparing and buying, the moment of choice moves. That changes the economics for everyone on the journey.

For merchants

Agents decide what gets shown and what gets bought. Merchants who aren't discoverable and transactable through agents risk losing wallet share and weaker customer loyalty. Those who are ready get chosen, and keep the relationship.

For banks

As agents initiate more payments, banks risk losing payment flows and their direct line to the customer. Staying central to authentication, authorisation and trust is how banks stay relevant in the agentic flow.

The opportunity is real on both sides. So is the risk of waiting. Worldline is the partner helping merchants and banks turn this shift into an advantage - without rebuilding what already works.

When an agent enters the journey, trust has to travel with it.

01.

What did the customer approve?

The intent behind a purchase needs to remain clear throughout the journey. The final transaction must reflect what the customer authorised.

02.

Who or what is initiating the payment?

The ecosystem needs to distinguish recognised agents and authorised activity from unknown or potentially fraudulent behaviour.

03.

How does the bank remain in control? 

Authentication, authorisation, risk management and consumer protection stay essential. Agentic commerce changes how the bank participates. It doesn't remove the bank.

Agentic commerce workflow: Intent, Agent, Approve, Pay, Confirm

Connecting agent-driven journeys to trusted payment infrastructure.

 

Worldline is connecting emerging agent-driven experiences to the payment ecosystem that merchants, banks and consumers already rely on.

Payments first

Acceptance, acquiring, issuing, authentication, processing and security stay at the core.

Ecosystem-led

We test new journeys with banks, payment networks, merchants and technology partners.

Adaptable by design

Standards are evolving. Our approach is scheme- and protocol-agnostic, built to work across payment environments as the ecosystem develops.

European by design

Strong Customer Authentication, consumer protection and diverse market structures shape how agentic payments need to work here.

What does agentic commerce mean for you?

The implications differ for merchants, financial institutions and ecosystem partners. Start with the pathway that reflects your role.

Person with headphones asking agentic commerce to research music subscription for upcoming scheduled party

FOR MERCHANTS

Prepare for customers who shop with AI.

  • Product and merchant discoverability
  • Agent-supported customer journeys
  • Checkout and payment readiness
  • Consumer approval and transaction confidence
  • Acceptance through trusted infrastructure

Explore agentic commerce for merchants ›

What you can build today

Agentic commerce is being built now and merchants and developers can start experimenting with Worldline already.

The Worldline MCP Server connects our payment capabilities to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, letting developers trigger payment actions with natural-language prompts instead of complex integrations. It’s a first building block: merchants can experiment with AI-powered commerce and build intelligent payment workflows without rewriting existing code.

Alongside it, Connect AI, our developer portal for building with AI, brings together our agentic commerce work and emerging protocols including Google’s AP2, OpenAI’s ACP, and Visa and Mastercard frameworks.

Explore ConnectAI ›

Read the documentation ›

Person confirmimg a mandate using agentic commerce

 

FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Keep the bank at the centre of trust.

  • Consumer authentication
  • Issuer authorisation and control
  • Agent and transaction signals
  • Fraud and risk management
  • Traceability and auditability

Explore agentic commerce for financial institutions ›

Two people reading about agentic commerce and regulations around AI in Europe

 

FOR PARTNERS AND THE ECOSYSTEM

Help shape a trusted European model.

  • Ecosystem interoperability
  • Emerging standards and protocols
  • Agent recognition and trust
  • European regulatory requirements
  • Joint proof-of-concept opportunities

Explore partnership opportunities ›

The next frontier in payments is here.

Whether you're a merchant or a financial institution, the way people pay is changing. The question is: how will you make it work for you?

Let’s talk today. We’ll walk you through how to turn agentic commerce into a trusted, European reality.

* Mandatory fields
Country
Who do you serve?
Marketing Opt-In

By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and understand the terms of use from Worldline, and that Worldline will process my personal data as stated in the privacy policy.

From discussion to live European transactions.

Agentic payments aren't a concept on our roadmap. They're running on European infrastructure today. Worldline has completed live, end-to-end agent-driven transactions with leading banks and payment networks across multiple European markets.

Mastercard proof point - Europe's first end-to-end agentic payment in production

Worldline and ING completed Europe's first end-to-end agentic payment transaction in production with Mastercard. An ING cardholder searched online for a wedding anniversary gift; a merchant's AI agent found concert tickets within the defined budget, presented a curated selection, and completed the purchase only after the consumer gave explicit approval. The transaction ran between cardholder and merchant in the Netherlands, on the same infrastructure across Belgium, over the Mastercard network, proving agent-initiated, authenticated payments can work end-to-end across multiple European markets. ING retained authentication and authorisation, and Worldline processed the payment end-to-end across its issuing and acquiring platforms. Explicit identifiers revealed the transaction's agentic nature, giving the bank full transparency and control.

Read full press release

We are seeing the next evolution of digital commerce, where trusted agents can act on behalf of consumers in a secure and transparent way. This milestone demonstrates how Mastercard Agent Pay can enable scalable, interoperable agentic payments — grounded in network-wide guardrails and reinforced by strong authentication. Issuers retain full visibility and control over every transaction.

Brice van de Walle, Executive Vice President, Core Payments Europe, Mastercard

Visa proof point - Consumer-defined intent, confirmed biometrically

Worldline and ING completed a live, end-to-end agent-driven payment transaction in Europe with Visa. In a scenario completed in Germany, the consumer set the conditions for the purchase - what to buy and when - and instructed an AI agent to act within them. The consumer confirmed purchase intent biometrically using Visa Payment Passkey, ING retained authorisation, and Worldline processed the transaction end-to-end. The model supports completion of the purchase order up to 48 hours after authorisation, within the consumer's instructions. Worldline and ING have joined Visa's Agentic Ready Programme.

Read the full press release

Agentic AI has the potential to reshape digital commerce, and this milestone shows how that future can begin to take shape in Europe. Through Visa Intelligent Commerce, we're helping bring trusted payment credentials, consumer control and programmability into emerging agentic commerce use cases — supporting real-world testing of how AI-enabled experiences can help consumers shop and pay within clearly defined parameters.

Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions, Visa Europe

Person purchasing concert tickets automatically using agentic commerce through Credit Agricole and Mastercard


Crédit Agricole proof point - The first agent payment in France

Worldline, Crédit Agricole and Mastercard completed the first agent payment transaction in production in France. A Crédit Agricole customer searched for festivals through a digital agent by setting up a budget, event type and location; the agent proposed options; and the customer confirmed before any purchase was made. Crédit Agricole, as issuing bank, retained authentication and authorisation. The flow ran end-to-end on Worldline's infrastructure, interacting with the Mastercard network, with specific identifiers ensuring transparency and traceability across the payment chain.

Read full press release

With this first agent-based payment transaction in France, Crédit Agricole confirms its innovation strategy in service of its customers. As a bank, we play a key role in guaranteeing secure, traceable and fully controlled payment journeys, adapted to future purchasing experiences — while maintaining a high level of trust in the payments ecosystem.

Philippe Marquetty, CEO, Crédit Agricole Payment Services

 

These proof points demonstrate how trusted agent-driven payments can work in practice as the wider ecosystem continues to develop.

We've been working on this since 2021.

Agentic payments didn't appear overnight, and neither did our thinking on them. Worldline began researching agent-initiated payments in 2021, well before the term reached the mainstream, including patented work on autonomous transaction risk analysis and agent-assisted banking operations.

That research continues in the open. Worldline experts, with HEC Paris, co-authored AI Agents in Payments: Applications, Risks and Regulations, published in the European Journal of Risk Regulation by Cambridge University Press.

The paper maps what changes when agents transact: the new risk categories, the gaps in payment regulation built for human-initiated transactions, and the governance needed to close them. Its conclusion is that trust isn't a feature you add later. It's the foundation agentic commerce runs on.

What the research makes clear: 

  • Payment infrastructure built to verify that a human initiated a transaction needs to evolve to verify legitimacy, whoever initiates it.

  • Liability, authentication and compliance frameworks need adapting for agent-initiated payments, work, the ecosystem must do together.

  • Banks, payment networks and payment service providers each have a defined role in anchoring trust. None is removed from the flow.

Read the research paper Otwiera się w nowej karcie

Built around the way European payments work.

Europe has distinct regulatory requirements, payment methods, banking structures and consumer expectations. Agentic payments have to respect all four from the start.

Strong authentication

Agent-driven journeys need to support established authentication requirements and clear consumer approval.

Issuer control

The issuing bank stays central to authorisation, risk management and consumer protection.

Market diversity

New journeys must work across different payment networks, acceptance environments and national markets.

See agentic commerce, live, in Paris.

The best way to understand what agentic commerce means for your business is to experience it. Our Innovation & Experience Centre in Paris runs a live, end-to-end agentic journey, from a customer's prompt to a payment Europe can trust, followed by a working session tailored to your role.

2026 sessions are filling up fast. Reserve yours while dates are still open.

Book your IEC session

FAQ

  • Agentic commerce is a form of digital commerce in which an AI agent can support or carry out parts of a buying journey on behalf of a consumer or business. An agent may help search, compare and select an option. With the right instructions and approval, it may also initiate or support the payment.

  • An agent-driven payment is a payment journey in which an AI agent participates in initiating or supporting a transaction, based on instructions or conditions set by a consumer or business.

  • Yes, as live, production proof points Worldline has completed end-to-end agent-driven payments with ING and Mastercard, with ING and Visa, and with Crédit Agricole and Mastercard, across multiple European markets. These show the payment layer can operate through established infrastructure today. Broader commercial availability is still developing, and will depend on continued alignment between merchants, banks, payment networks, technology providers and regulators.

  • Never. The models Worldline has demonstrated are designed around consumer instructions and approval. The agent supports or acts within defined conditions, while the bank retains authentication and authorisation. We're also exploring how agents could make more autonomous purchases without direct involvement of the customer, based on high-level intent.

  • SCA stays relevant when an AI agent participates in a payment journey. The consumer still needs an appropriate way to authenticate and approve the transaction, and the issuing bank retains control over authorisation. In Worldline and ING's work with Visa, the consumer confirmed purchase intent biometrically using Visa Payment Passkey, supporting a journey designed around established authentication requirements.

  • Biometric authentication gives the consumer a familiar, low-friction way to confirm a purchase within an agent-driven journey. In Worldline and ING's work with Visa, Visa Payment Passkey was used to authenticate the consumer's purchase intent.

  • A merchant needs a clear, verifiable record of what the customer approved — the product or service, merchant, amount, timing and any other conditions. The payment journey should preserve this approval context so the bank and other participants can understand what was authorised, by whom and under which conditions.

  • An agent-driven transaction may need additional context alongside standard payment data: how the agent participated, what the customer approved, the applicable purchase conditions, the authentication event and the final outcome. This supports issuer decision-making, traceability and dispute handling.

  • AI agents shouldn't need access to raw payment credentials. Tokenisation can replace sensitive card information with payment tokens used within controlled journeys. Authentication, token controls and secure processing keep the agent separate from the underlying card credentials.

  • Agent-driven payments should operate within the security, authentication, fraud management and regulatory controls used for digital payments today. New risks can arise from unknown agents, altered instructions or unusual transaction behaviour. The consumer's approval, agent and transaction signals, issuer controls and a clear record of the journey all help manage them.

  • Agent-driven payments continue to use established payment rails and their dispute processes. The key difference is the potential need for additional evidence showing the agent's role and the conditions the customer approved. The exact allocation of liability depends on the payment method, scheme rules, contractual arrangements and applicable law.

  • Yes, some models already support delayed completion within clearly defined conditions. In the Visa transaction Worldline and ING demonstrated, the model allowed completion up to 48 hours after authorisation. In future, agents may complete transactions with greater autonomy based on a customer's high-level intent.

  • Merchants may need to make products and buying journeys understandable to AI agents, while keeping checkout, approval and payment confirmation reliable and secure.

  • Banks may need to process new transaction information, authentication patterns and risk signals, while retaining control over authorisation and consumer protection.

  • Yes. Worldline began researching agent-initiated payments in 2021 and continues to publish on the topic. Worldline experts co-authored AI Agents in Payments: Applications, Risks and Regulations with HEC Paris, published in the European Journal of Risk Regulation by Cambridge University Press.

  • Worldline is currently working with ecosystem partners to test and develop the payment capabilities agent-driven commerce needs. The live transactions are proof points and shouldn't be read as broad commercial availability.

  • Yes. The Worldline MCP Server connects our payment functionality to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, so developers can build and test AI-powered payment workflows using natural-language prompts. It's available now via our developer portal, ConnectAI, as a first building block toward agent-initiated payments.