Agentic commerce: How AI-powered shopping is rewriting the rules of online payments

Across e-commerce, a new kind of customer journey is emerging, and it doesn’t always involve the customer. Instead of users searching for products or services, clicking links, and completing purchases, AI systems are starting to do it for them.  

This is the rise of agentic commerce, a space in which intelligent agents autonomously recommend, negotiate, and manage purchases on a user’s behalf.

According to Juniper Research, the global value of e-commerce payments is projected to reach US $13 trillion by 2030 (up from US $8.3 trillion in 2025). While the firm is yet to publish a forecast exclusively for ‘agentic commerce’, it identifies agentic commerce as a key accelerator of the e-commerce payments market, particularly in how AI agents will assume parts of the transaction flow that merchants currently control.  

For merchants themselves, it points to a coming rise of AI-driven transactions that will mark one of the most profound shifts in payments since the mobile wallet era.

However, though the potential opportunities are abundant, so are the risks. To thrive in an AI-powered commerce world, merchants will need payment infrastructure that’s instant, trusted, and programmable without exposing sensitive ​customer​​​ data.  

In this piece, we share why local payment methods (LPMs) already hold an advantage as the era of AI-powered shopping unfolds.

‍What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce refers to AI-powered purchasing where autonomous agents make buying decisions on behalf of users. These ‘agents’ interpret intent, compare products, and can directly complete transactions through integrated payment systems.

Early AI transaction interfaces (typically, conversational or embedded tools that enable direct in-chat purchases), are revealing the direction of travel. Rather than redirecting users to a website, the purchase happens seamlessly within the interaction/chat itself.

At Boku, we see agentic commerce as a concept that sits at the intersection of AI autonomy and local payment rails. While others view it as a subset of broader AI-powered commerce, Boku focuses on how local, compliant payment systems can power agentic experiences at global scale.  

​​​​T​​omorrow’s merchants will optimize their agentic AI commerce experiences for intelligent systems that transact independently.

The opportunity for merchants

Agentic commerce creates a new acquisition channel where AI assistants act as intermediaries between customers and brands. When an AI system recommends a product or service, it must also execute that purchase instantly.

In this context, being AI-ready effectively means being payment-ready. It means having infrastructure that can authenticate, settle, and reconcile transactions without manual intervention or ​data entry. And it’s here where LPMs outperform traditional ​payment methods​​.

Agentic commerce is predicted to go from 5 billion to 200 billion. Having AI not only help you shop, but actually complete your purchase. But wouldn't it be so much better if before you give your payment method to an AI, you can actually place certain limits around it, certain safeguards?, said Adam Lee, Boku’s Chief Product Officer, at a recent industry panel.

With biometric authentication, stored mandates, and real-time settlement, LPMs deliver the transparency and control that both agentic systems and consumers will come to demand.

The challenge: fraud, autonomy, and trust

When AI systems transact on behalf of users, trust boundaries inevitably shift. How can consumers be sure that a purchase was legitimate? How do merchants protect against bot-driven fraud or synthetic identities?

Customer protection is already enabled by LPMs and mandate-based payments that allow users to authorize recurring transactions, set spending limits, and revoke permissions at any time.

Nurturing peace of mind for customers will require fraud prevention to evolve in step. When bots and AI agents complete purchases autonomously, fraud monitoring, prevention, and resolution — areas where Boku excels — become even more critical.

How LPMs can power agentic commerce

LPMs provide the foundation for AI-powered commerce because they already provide the mechanisms agentic systems require:

-No ​data sharing — transactions occur via tokenization, stored mandates, or account-to-account (A2A) rails.

-Built-in authentication — biometric, SMS, or mobile confirmation ensures human authorization.

-Programmability — configurable limits and recurring permissions align with AI autonomy.

-Global reach through local rails — systems such as Pix (Brazil) or GCash (Philippines) show how trusted digital payments can scale without card dependency.

As a Global Payments Lead at a Boku merchant partner, observed:

“Agentic commerce will make the underlying payment form more personalized than ever. We see LPMs as key to global growth because, for global platforms, scale depends on local relevance.

“An AI agent in Singapore won’t use the same payment method as one in São Paulo. Merchants integrating with local ecosystems today will be far better positioned for agentic AI commerce tomorrow.”

The merchant readiness checklist

To prepare for the move toward AI-powered commerce, merchants should ensure their payment stack supports:

1. Real-time A2A payments for instant, automated settlement.

2. Digital-wallet integrations that capture mobile-native, biometric-secured transactions.

3. Mandate-based authorization for programmable limits and user-controlled consent.

4. Fraud-monitoring and dispute-resolution tools for both human and agentic activity.

5. Single-integration access to global LPMs for reach without complexity.

Each of these capabilities exist within Boku’s platform, meaning the building blocks for agentic commerce are in place even before it fully arrives.

Boku is watching agentic commerce closely. Here’s why.

Boku doesn’t offer agentic commerce directly but ​supports merchants invested in agentic commerce operations. ​​     ​

Keegan Flanigan, Boku’s Chief Technology Officer, explains:

“Our modular architecture supports five-times volume growth out of the box and enables fast expansion of payment methods. Such flexibility means we can easily accommodate emerging merchant use cases like agentic commerce.”

This architecture, which provides unified access to wallets, A2A systems, and direct carrier billing, positions Boku as a natural enabler for the next generation of AI-powered commerce.

As regulation advances, compliant AI-to-payment frameworks will determine which agentic models scale sustainably. Preparing for this evolution isn’t about futuristic experimentation; it’s about building trust, flexibility, and coverage across the payment methods that consumers are using now. And, very soon, their AIs will, too.

The next era of commerce will be agentic — and local

Agentic commerce will reimagine how consumers buy and how merchants get paid. But the systems that make it possible — secure, transparent LPMs — are already widespread.

By connecting merchants to hundreds of LPMs worldwide, Boku is laying the groundwork for this next era of commerce, ensuring that when AI starts buying, merchants are ready to get paid safely, instantly, and in compliance with the latest regulatory mandates.

Boku is working with leading search engines on the future and shaping the future of agentic commerce, you can be sure that we're going to be advocating for the use of LPMs and the mandates that they provide, because we believe that giving consumers peace of mind is going to drive higher adoption of agentic commerce. Adam Lee, Chief Product Officer at Boku.

​​​The time to start preparing for agentic commerce is today, because tomorrow’s customers won’t be the only ones clicking ‘buy.’

Their AIs will, too.

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