Payment Pulse – Ep. 32

Agentic commerce is changing how transactions happen. Learn how AI-driven purchasing impacts payments, APIs, and software platforms.

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Episode Transcript

 

Shannon: Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Payment Pulse podcast. I’m Shannon.

Michelle: And I’m Michelle. Today, we’re talking about something that’s starting to change how payments actually happen, and it’s one of those shifts that doesn’t sound like a big deal at first- until you realize what the implications are.

Shannon: Yeah, because for as long as we’ve all been working in payments or software, there’s always been a person involved in the transaction.

Michelle: Right. Someone clicks, confirms, and enters their credit card details.

Shannon: Exactly, like everything we’ve built from checkout flows to saved cards, one-click payments- it’s all been about making that moment easier for a person.

Michelle: But that assumption is starting to change.

Shannon: Right? Because now we’re starting to see AI tools that don’t just help people make decisions. They actually make the purchase.

Michelle: Which still feels a little strange to say out loud!

Shannon: It does. It does, but it’s real, and it’s already starting to show up in everyday use cases.

Michelle: So today we’re digging into what people are calling “agentic commerce” and what it actually means for software platforms. So let’s start simple. What does agentic commerce mean?

Shannon: At the simplest level, it means that AI is the one making the purchase.

Michelle: So not recommending it. Not suggesting it.

Shannon: Right. So it decides and completes the transaction.

Michelle: So instead of, “Here are a few options”, it’s more like: “I already took care of it.”

Shannon: Exactly.

Michelle: That’s a pretty big shift.

Shannon: Yeah. It really is because the transaction isn’t really a user journey anymore. It’s just something that happens based on logic.

Michelle: So the part of this that stuck with me is the idea that there’s no click anymore.

Shannon: Yeah, so it’s kind of funny when you think about it because we spent years trying to reduce friction and create fewer steps and make checkout faster.

Michelle: And now it’s like… what if there’s no checkout at all?

Shannon: Right? So like, no buy now moment, no confirmation screen.

Michelle: The decision just… happens in the background.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Exactly. And it’s based on things like preferences, rules, maybe pricing thresholds, whatever the system is using.

Michelle: All right, so why should software providers care about this right now?

Shannon: Mm-hmm. I think the biggest thing is that payments are no longer triggered by people. They’re triggered by systems.

Michelle: Again, that’s a pretty big shift in how you think about it.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it really is because if there’s no person in that moment, then a lot of what we’ve optimized for starts to matter less.

Michelle: Like checkout UX.

Shannon: Exactly. It’s not irrelevant, but it’s not at the center anymore.

Michelle: So if that’s the case, then what is in the center?

Shannon: Mm-hmm. So what matters now is whether your system can actually support that kind of transaction behind the scenes.

Michelle: Now, this is the part that feels a little tricky for me. What happens to customer visibility?

Shannon: Yeah, so this one’s easy to overlook because when a person makes a purchase, you get a lot of context. You get a lot of data. You know what they looked at, what they picked and what they didn’t choose.

Michelle: I mean, that’s how you understand behavior.

Shannon: Right. Right. But if a system makes a decision, then you might just see the end result.

Michelle: Without really knowing why it happened.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Exactly. And you lose the story behind the transaction.

Michelle: Which makes it even harder to understand your customer.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. And harder to make decisions based on that data.

Michelle: It also feels like this changes how companies compete.

Shannon: Yeah, it really does. Because now you’re not just trying to win over a user. You’re trying to get picked by a system.

Michelle: Which is a very different audience.

Shannon: Yeah. Because systems don’t care about things like design or branding.

Michelle: Well, what do they care about then?

Shannon: Um, they care about things like clear pricing, structured data, reliability.

Michelle: So things that are easy to evaluate automatically.

Shannon: Exactly.

Michelle: So would you say that this is more of an infrastructure shift than anything else?

Shannon: Yeah, I think that’s the right way to think about it, because it’s less about how good your experience looks and more about whether your system actually works the way that it needs to.

Michelle: Behind the scenes, you mean?

Shannon: Yeah. Behind the scenes. Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Okay. Now this is where APIs really come into play.

Shannon: Yeah. And we’re not talking about in a nice-to-have way.

Michelle: More like, if you don’t have this, you’re not even part of the conversation.

Shannon: Exactly. Because systems don’t click buttons, they connect to APIs.

Michelle: So if your payments only work through a UI…

Shannon: You’re basically invisible.

Michelle: All right, so if I’m a software platform listening to this, what should I actually be thinking about?

Shannon: Um, you should be thinking about a couple practical things, so make sure your payments are fully accessible through APIs. And you also have to think about how you handle credentials, because security and tokenization become really important. And it’s really important that you start rethinking how authorization works because now you’re giving systems permission to act on someone’s behalf.

Michelle: Again, it’s a pretty big shift.

Shannon: It is. And I’d also say don’t lose control of the transaction layer.

Michelle: Because that’s where the value is, right?

Shannon: That’s where the data, the relationship, and the economics sit.

Michelle: And just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that people go away completely, right?

Shannon: No, not at all. Because it’s just more of a mix.

Michelle: So some purchases will still be human-driven.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Right. And others will be automated.

Michelle: So you kind of have to support both.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And those are two very different experiences to design for.

Michelle: Alright, so zooming out, this feels like one of those bigger shifts in how software is adapting to the power of artificial intelligence,

Shannon: It does, because we’ve gone from in-person to digital, and desktop to mobile…

Michelle: And this is kind of the next phase.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So moving towards systems, making more decisions.

Michelle: And acting on them.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Michelle: So the big takeaway is that this is already starting to happen.

Shannon: And it’s going to change how transactions actually work.

Michelle: So the question is whether your platform is ready for that shift.

Shannon: Or whether it gets left out of it.

Michelle: All right. Well, thanks for listening. If you’re looking for more resources like this, you can visit our blog at xplorepay.com. That’s X-P-L-O-R pay dot com.

Shannon: And we’ll see you next time on Payment Pulse.