Google is working with greater than 60 partners to shape the long run of AI payments. Its cloud division has introduced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), a shared framework designed to make agent-led transactions safer and easier across platforms.
AP2 extends earlier efforts comparable to the Agent2Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP). Working alongside existing payment rules and standards, it provides a payment-neutral system that lets users, merchants, and providers transact securely, no matter the strategy—bank cards, bank transfers, or digital currencies.
More than 60 organisations are collaborating in shaping AP2, including Southeast Asia players like Airwallex, Fiuu, Garena, Lazada, Razer, Shopee, and ZALORA, in addition to global firms comparable to Adyen, American Express, Coinbase, JCB, Mastercard, MetaMask, PayPal, Trip.com, UnionPay International, and Worldpay.
Why AP2 matters
The rise of AI agents changes a basic assumption of payment systems—that a human is all the time the one pressing “buy.” When an agent could make purchases on behalf of a user, recent questions arise about how to prove authority, confirm intent, and resolve disputes when something goes fallacious. AP2 was created to address these challenges by providing a secure foundation for authorisation, authenticity, and accountability in transactions.
“AP2 is an open, shared protocol that gives a standard language for secure, compliant transactions between agents and merchants,” said Rao Surapaneni, Vice President and General Manager of Business Applications Platform at Google Cloud. “It also supports different payment types – from credit and debit cards to stablecoins and real-time bank transfers.
This helps ensure a consistent, secure, and scalable experience for users and merchants, while also providing financial institutions with the clarity they need to effectively manage risk.”
How it really works
At the guts of the protocol are Mandates—digitally signed contracts that record a user’s instructions. These contracts, backed by verifiable credentials, create a reliable trail of evidence for every step of a transaction. For example, when someone asks an agent to discover a pair of trainers, the request is logged as an Intent Mandate. Once the user approves the ultimate cart, a Cart Mandate is created, locking within the items and the worth. If the duty is delegated upfront, comparable to buying concert tickets after they go on sale, an in depth Intent Mandate specifies the foundations. The agent then generates a Cart Mandate when the conditions are met, all without the user being present.
This sequence of events—intent, cart, and payment—provides the proof needed to establish authorisation and authenticity, while leaving a transparent record for accountability.
Partners say AP2 will probably be key to creating confidence in agent-led transactions. Jacob Dai, Co-Founder and CTO of Airwallex, called it “a critical step forward in constructing a secure, interoperable ecosystem for agentic AI payments.” Eng Sheng Guan, CEO of Fiuu, said the shift toward agent-driven commerce requires open standards like AP2 and A2A to ensure trust and interoperability. Mastercard’s Chief Digital Officer Pablo Fourez added that the corporate sees the collaboration as a part of its broader work on verifiable credentials and standards that strengthen safety across the payments industry.
Unlocking recent commerce
The design of AP2 is flexible enough to support each familiar transactions and completely recent varieties of commerce. A client could instruct their agent to monitor the supply of a winter jacket in a particular color and robotically purchase it once it appears, avoiding a missed sale. In one other case, an intent shared with a merchant might trigger a customized offer that bundles several products at a reduction. Agents may also work together to complete multi-step tasks comparable to booking flights and hotels inside a set budget, ensuring each transactions meet the user’s conditions and are confirmed concurrently.
AP2 just isn’t limited to standard payment methods. It was designed as a universal protocol that also supports cryptocurrencies. With partners like Coinbase, Ethereum Foundation, and MetaMask, Google has launched the A2A x402 extension, which enables agent-based crypto payments. Marco De Rossi, AI Lead at MetaMask, said the extension would give developers maximum interoperability while allowing users to keep control of their funds through self-custody.
What’s next
Mark Micallef, Managing Director for Southeast Asia at Google Cloud, pointed to the region’s growing e-commerce market for instance of the size of opportunity. In 2024, gross merchandise value across sectors comparable to e-commerce, online travel, and food delivery reached US$263 billion. Digital payments within the region are projected to surpass US$2.1 trillion by 2030, making reliable and secure agent-led transactions all of the more necessary.
Support for AP2 is anticipated to expand through Google Cloud’s AI Agent Marketplace, where firms are starting to test agent-based payment experiences. This could extend to B2B uses, comparable to automated procurement or the automated adjustment of software licences in response to real-time demand. For Google and its partners, the decision now’s for wider collaboration, with AP2 positioned as the start line for constructing trust in a brand new era of AI-driven commerce.
See also: News sites lose traffic as Google AI Overviews replace search
Want to learn more about AI and massive data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo happening in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is a component of TechEx and is co-located with other leading technology events, click here for more information.
AI News is powered by TechForge Media. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here.
Read the complete article here
