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The "AI in Payments" panel at the Payments Innovation Conference on October 21, 2025, at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., brought together industry pioneers to explore the transformative impact of AI on payment systems.
Matt Marcus of Modern Treasury expertly moderated the discussion, focusing on how AI is driving real-time processing and automation to enhance security, speed, and operational efficiency in payments.
Emily Sands from Stripe introduced the concept of agentic commerce, where AI agents act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers. She emphasized the importance of merchants clearly communicating their processes to AI agents for effective interaction. Emily also shared that Stripe and OpenAI collaborated to create the open-source Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), enabling merchants to keep control over orders, payments, and fulfillment while allowing AI agents to execute transactions smoothly. She highlighted the industry's ongoing efforts to reduce fraud risk in this space.
Richard Widmann of Google Cloud discussed how AI-powered agentic payments integrate with stablecoins, which provide programmable money ideal for AI-driven microtransactions. He pointed out AI’s capability to personalize shopping experiences by identifying preferred products, making commerce faster and more efficient.
Alesia Haas of Coinbase underscored stablecoins’ programmability and regulatory clarity as critical enablers for secure and efficient AI transactions. She also described how AI is actively deployed at Coinbase for fraud detection and software development, including blacklisting risky wallets to minimize threats.
Cathie Wood of Ark Invest projected a significant economic uplift from agentic payments, suggesting they could rapidly accelerate GDP growth through commerce innovation. She stressed the urgent need for clear regulations and open standards to support this evolution.
The panel highlighted the power of collaboration among AI, blockchain, and payment ecosystems to build secure, scalable, and user-friendly agentic commerce solutions backed by AI and stablecoins. Their insights paint a future where AI not only enhances payment infrastructure but also reshapes commerce itself.