Visa, Mastercard and Ant International announced a collaboration this Thursday (10) to develop a common standard for identifying and verifying artificial intelligence agents capable of making purchases on behalf of users.
Dubbed Know-Your-Agent (KYA), the framework aims to enable payment networks, digital wallets, AI platforms and marketplaces to recognize trusted agents without relying on separate validation processes for each system.
The proposal establishes mechanisms to link each agent to an identified consumer, company or operator, in addition to defining shared security requirements and continuous monitoring of transactions.
The goal is to reduce fraud, duplicate integrations and uncertainties about who is behind a purchase made by AI. Each company will be able to continue using its own authentication and risk management systems.
Visa, Mastercard and Ant are already developing their own technologies for the so-called agentic commerce, a market in which AI agents no longer merely recommend products and begin receiving authorization to complete purchases and payments.
The initiative signals an advance in creating the infrastructure necessary for this model. A McKinsey projection cited by the companies estimates that AI agents could participate in US$ 3 trillion to US$ 5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030.
