Artificial intelligence agents’ ability to shop and purchase products on behalf of consumers is set to advance with the launch of Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2).
The protocol is designed as a neutral, open-source framework that enables merchants, consumers, and third-party platforms to leverage the benefits of agentic AI. It supports multiple payment types, including debit and credit cards, stablecoin transfers, and real-time payments.
While giving AI agents full autonomy to shop on users’ behalf may raise concerns, Google is introducing safeguards through the use of mandates—digital contracts that securely verify an AI agent has followed the user’s instructions.
For example, if a user asks an AI agent to buy tickets for the upcoming baseball playoffs, they would sign a mandate detailing the desired price, purchase timing, and other key conditions. The initiator would then sign a separate mandate granting the AI agent authority to complete the transaction once conditions are met.
A Seal of Approval
Although use cases for AI agents continue to emerge, the promise of Google’s protocol would mean little without industry adoption.
On that front, Google has earned a strong seal of approval. It has secured support from credit card giants like Mastercard and American Express, fintechs such as PayPal and Alipay, and crypto companies including Coinbase and MetaMask. Google has also attracted backing from Etsy, Intuit, and Salesforce.
In total, over 60 companies have backed AP2, marking a significant industry-wide collaboration. As with its recent blockchain launch, Google’s goal with AP2 is to provide an open, agnostic framework for the industry.
Building Consumer Confidence
While this backing is noteworthy, questions remain about whether customers will find value in agentic commerce. Mandates can help build consumer confidence in the process, yet AI agents have already been exploited in many cases by bad actors.
In AP2, Google has incorporated safeguards that create an auditable trail, allowing fraudulent transactions to be reviewed. Still, these guardrails may not go far enough to entice consumers to fully hand over control to AI agents.
“Interesting topic and aligns with our recent research on agentic commerce,” said Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Several folks are quoted in this article questioning where liability falls when the agent operates outside its authorized scope: the consumer, the merchant or the card issuer? We took this a level deeper and asked, ‘How does the consumer know who the agent is truly working for? Is the agent delivering the best deal for the consumer or steering the consumer toward purchases where the agent receives a commission from the merchant?’”
“Look no further than the Google search engine where companies pay for placement to appear at the top of the search results, even though they may not be the best answer to what the user was searching for,” he said. “Kudos to Google for taking a leadership role and establishing a framework within which agents can be validated and operate securely, but there are significant business and financial questions that remain for consumers.”
