Fintech firm Ant International announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Visa (V.US) and MasterCard (MA.US) to jointly establish new standards for AI agent payments, betting that consumers and businesses will increasingly rely on AI agents to complete transactions. In its statement, the companies cited a McKinsey forecast projecting that AI agents will handle between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030.

However, Ant International's Chief Innovation Officer, Jiang-Ming Yang, noted that AI agents carry the risk of "hallucinations," which means "we need to ensure people feel safe." "Trust is the foundation of AI transformation," Yang said in an interview. The collaboration is designed to address these concerns head-on by building a robust trust infrastructure around AI-driven transactions.

Building a Trust System for AI Payments

In its announcement, Ant International stated that the partnership will focus on how payment companies can implement "Know Your Agent" (KYA), including establishing common standards that link each agent to a valid entity, as well as evaluating and monitoring each agent's behavior. The goal is to enhance interoperability among users across different systems. "If an agent is registered with Ant International, there is no need to register again with Visa or Mastercard," Yang explained.

Over the past 12 months, Visa, MasterCard, and Ant International have each separately announced their own protocols designed to enable AI agents to complete payments securely. While U.S. credit card giants Visa and MasterCard dominate transactions in developed economies, many developing economies show a stronger preference for digital wallets. Currently, more than 50 digital wallets have integrated with Ant International, which operates the "Alipay Plus" application. These digital wallets have begun linking to credit cards and are becoming a more common payment method than physical cards. According to payment processor Worldpay, digital wallets accounted for 56% of global e-commerce value and 33% of point-of-sale value in 2025, with spending exceeding $13 trillion.

Now, the relevant technology must evolve safely around AI-driven consumption scenarios. "Interoperability between Know Your Agent frameworks is critical for agentic commerce to scale," said Pablo Fourez, Chief Digital Officer at MasterCard, emphasizing that merchants and payment processors need consistent methods to identify which AI agents are trustworthy. Ant International was spun off from Hangzhou-based Ant Group approximately three years ago.

Alipay announced on Wednesday that users can now set up recurring orders for Starbucks through one of its AI features. According to the press release, users can tell the app "buy me a Starbucks iced Americano every day at 10 a.m.," and the app will place the order at the specified time, subsequently prompting the user to complete payment. Users can also currently send recurring ride-hailing requests to Didi through the same Alipay AI tool.