Agentic commerce – the new interface for commerce

Agentic commerce is a new way of shopping where an AI assistant manages the entire journey, from product discovery to final payment.

At Paytrail, our goal is to enable secure payments in agent-mediated commerce. We will continue to update this page as our development progresses.
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AI is becoming a channel for sales and payments

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a new kind of sales channel alongside traditional e-commerce. To ensure that payments remain easy and reliable when made through AI agents, a payment service is needed that guarantees security and user authentication.

Paytrail and Nexi have selected the UCP protocol as the foundation for their payment solution, an open standard developed by Google. It defines how AI agents can interact with online stores and initiate purchase transactions.

We are currently exploring topics such as:

  • How can an AI agent initiate a payment securely?
  • How are customer consent and authentication ensured?
  • How can payments be carried out in a controlled way?

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What does agentic commerce mean for merchants today?

Agentic commerce is still a new and rapidly evolving space. In Europe, regulation shapes how payment solutions can be implemented. As a result, a fully seamless journey from product comparison to payment is not yet possible.

However, there are already practical steps you can take to get started:

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Make your products visible in AI-driven search (GEO)

AI can already search for and compare products on behalf of customers and this shift is accelerating. To stay competitive, merchants need to go beyond traditional search engine optimization (SEO) and consider AI optimization (GEO), ensuring their products are included in AI-driven recommendations and comparisons.

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Stay up to date and embrace what’s new

AI is transforming how consumers search but also how merchants operate, from marketing to managing product data. Be bold and experiment with new solutions, and subscribe to our newsletter above to stay ahead.

Read our blog to learn how AI is changing e-commerce marketing.

Agentic commerce FAQs

Agentic commerce is a way of shopping where AI helps customers find, compare, and even purchase products.

Many purchase journeys already begin with a conversation with an AI assistant, but solutions that enable fully automated payments are not yet available in Finland.

Agentic commerce is reshaping commerce across three key areas:

1. Product discovery: AI helps customers find and compare products more efficiently.
2. Payments: AI can initiate payments, while payment providers ensure transactions are completed securely.
3. Customer service: AI can handle tasks such as returns and order inquiries.

Security is fundamental to payments. AI is not intended to make payments independently. Customers remain in control, and every payment requires user consent and authentication.

In practice, payments rely on the same proven security mechanisms used today, including strong customer authentication, payment tokens, and the risk management systems of payment providers.

New mechanisms are also being developed for AI agents. These introduce a clear chain of authorization, ensuring that the agent is acting on behalf of the correct user and with their explicit permission.

In simple terms: AI can assist with purchases and initiate payments, but security is always ensured by the payment provider and authentication processes.

Agentic commerce introduces a range of new technical terms that describe how AI services connect with other systems and act on behalf of users.

  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) enables AI models to access data and functionality from different systems through APIs. It acts as a standardized way for AI to connect to external services, similar to a USB-C port.
  • UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) is an open standard developed by Google that connects online stores with AI assistants. It enables purchasing through AI assistants such as Gemini. Its first phase focuses on payments, user identity, and order management. UCP is designed to work with the AP2 protocol and can use it during the payment step.
  • AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol) defines how an AI agent can securely initiate a payment on behalf of a user. It focuses on trust, authorization, and securely passing the payment request to a payment provider or platform.
  • ACP (Agent Commerce Protocol) refers to the approach by OpenAI and Stripe for enabling agentic commerce. It allows AI agents to create transactions and initiate payments, for example through ChatGPT. Unlike UCP, ACP is not a universal open standard, but is tied more closely to specific platforms and ecosystems.

Together, these technologies form the foundation that enables AI agents to operate securely and reliably in digital commerce.

Start by investing in AI optimization (GEO) to ensure your store and products remain visible in AI-driven search and discovery.

Think of AI as a new sales channel alongside your existing ones and start testing how it can support your business.

At the same time, keep in mind that this is a new and rapidly evolving space. There are currently no solutions in Finland where an AI agent can complete a purchase on behalf of a customer.

Across Europe, the development of payment solutions is also shaped by strict regulation, which plays a key role in ensuring security.