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Ant International Joins Forces With Visa and Mastercard to Standardize AI Payments
Technology Services · Data Processing Services · cnbc · 2026-09-10
V, MA, SBUX, MCD
Ant International is partnering with Visa and Mastercard to create secure standards for AI-driven payments, aiming to build trust in autonomous commerce.
What Happened
Strategic AI Payment Collaboration: Ant International has entered a partnership with payment giants Visa and Mastercard to establish a unified framework for AI-driven transactions. The initiative aims to address the growing role of AI agents in global commerce, which is projected to handle trillions of dollars in spending by 2030.
Building Trust and Security: A primary focus of the collaboration is the development of a 'Know Your Agent' standard to ensure that AI-driven payments are secure and reliable. By creating common protocols, the companies intend to mitigate risks like AI hallucinations and ensure that agents are linked to valid, verifiable entities.
Enhancing Interoperability: The partnership seeks to streamline the user experience by allowing AI agents to operate across different payment systems without redundant registration processes. This interoperability is viewed as a critical step toward scaling agentic commerce and ensuring consistent recognition by merchants and processors.
Market Context and Digital Wallets: As digital wallets continue to dominate global e-commerce, Ant International is leveraging its Alipay Plus ecosystem to integrate these new security standards. The move reflects a broader industry shift as companies prepare for a future where automated, recurring AI-based requests become a standard consumer behavior.