Ant International announced a collaboration with Visa and Mastercard to create common standards for payments executed by AI agents. The initiative focuses on "Know Your Agent" protocols that link each AI agent to a valid entity, assess its behavior, and monitor activity to ensure security and trust. This partnership aims to increase interoperability across different payment systems, allowing an agent registered with one partner to operate seamlessly within the others without redundant registration processes.
The move follows separate announcements by Visa, Mastercard, and Ant International over the past year regarding their individual AI payment protocols. The companies cited McKinsey projections estimating that AI agents will handle $3 trillion to $5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030. While Visa and Mastercard dominate developed economies, Ant International’s network includes more than 50 e-wallets prevalent in developing markets. Digital wallets accounted for 56% of global e-commerce value and 33% of point-of-sale value in 2025, representing over $13 trillion in spending, according to Worldpay.
This development signals a critical shift from isolated proprietary experiments to industry-wide standardization in agentic commerce. By aligning on "Know Your Agent" frameworks, the partners are addressing the primary barrier to mass adoption: the lack of a unified method for merchants and processors to verify the legitimacy and safety of autonomous digital actors. Trust remains the foundational constraint for AI integration in financial transactions, particularly given the risks associated with hallucination or unauthorized actions by software agents.
From a Market Structure perspective, this collaboration highlights the growing convergence between traditional card networks and emerging digital wallet ecosystems. As AI agents increasingly mediate transactions, the ability to interoperate across both credit card rails and e-wallet infrastructures becomes essential for scalability. Stakeholders should watch for the technical implementation details of these shared standards and how they address liability issues when autonomous agents execute erroneous or fraudulent transactions.
