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Insights and Expertise

Second, organizations should invest in evidence capture
Three questions every merchant and audit infrastructure that records agent permissions
should ask about AI purchasing alongside transaction activity. In an agentic dispute, the
evidential anchor is no longer a single real-time authen-
tication event. It is a verifiable record of prior consent,
Agentic commerce may still be emerging, but merchants delegated authority and transaction intent. Without that
can begin evaluating their readiness today by asking three framework, merchants may struggle to defend disputes
practical questions. effectively.
1. Can our systems distinguish an authorized AI
agent from a malicious bot? Legacy fraud tools Third, merchants should review fraud detection rules and
may not recognize the difference. risk thresholds to account for the behavioral differences
2. Can we prove what an AI agent was authorized between human and agent-driven commerce. Research
from PSE Consulting found that among UK shoppers
to do? Permission records, spending limits and planning to use AI for purchases, 85 percent said they
audit trails may become essential evidence if would trust an AI system to place orders and execute pay-
disputes arise. ments on their behalf—a signal of how quickly consumer
3. Would our fraud rules reject legitimate agent- readiness is outpacing merchant infrastructure.
driven transactions? False declines already
affect traditional ecommerce. As AI agents AI agents will behave differently from consumers in ways
become more common, merchants should that may consistently trigger legacy fraud models if those
ensure risk models evolve alongside customer systems are not adapted accordingly.
behavior.
This challenge is unlikely to emerge uniformly across
Preparing now doesn't require predicting every future markets. Adoption rates, regulatory expectations and con-
rule. It means building the visibility, documentation sumer trust in AI-assisted purchasing will vary consider-
and flexibility needed to adapt as agentic commerce ably between the US, UK and key international markets.
continues to evolve. Businesses operating globally will need to monitor those
regional differences closely.

In an agentic commerce environment, invisibility to those The broader obligation
agents may become a competitive disadvantage that com- Agentic commerce is not something the industry should
pounds quietly until it becomes significant.
resist. The prospect of frictionless, highly personalized
and autonomous purchasing offers genuine opportunities
According to the Global Ecommerce Report 2026, agentic for consumers, merchants and the wider payments eco-
commerce could account for 25 percent to 30 percent of system alike. But opportunity and responsibility arrive
all global online purchases by 2030. Many merchants still together.
lack the internal visibility required to fully understand
and manage emerging agentic commerce behavior inde- The payments industry built dispute systems to protect
pendently, particularly as transaction patterns grow more consumers. As AI-driven commerce expands, those pro-
complex across channels and regions.
tections will need to evolve to reflect a world where the
"consumer" at the point of transaction may increasingly be
I am already seeing growing concern about how agent- a machine acting on someone's behalf.
initiated transactions will be identified, monitored and
defended when disputes arise. The industry response is The question of who ultimately bears liability when an AI
increasingly focused on bringing together dispute, fraud agent makes a purchase the customer later disputes re-
and transaction data in real time so that emerging risks mains unresolved at the network level. Until clearer stan-
can be identified earlier and addressed before they esca- dards emerge, merchants that fail to build robust permis-
late into chargebacks.
sion, monitoring and evidence frameworks around agent-
What merchants need to do now initiated commerce are likely to remain exposed.

The window to prepare is narrow. First, merchants should Monica Eaton is the founder and CEO of Chargebacks911 and Fi911, as
establish far more granular permission frameworks for
any AI agents transacting on their platforms. Broad or well as Chief Information Officer of Global Risk Technologies. Monica
vague consent will not be sufficient. Businesses need clar- has worked tirelessly to educate merchants and financial institutions
ity around what an agent is permitted to purchase, what about hidden threats in the rapidly changing payment fraud landscape.
spending limits apply, what merchant categories are au- For more information, visit www.chargebacks911.com, https://fi911.
thorized and what fallback actions should occur when com/ or reach out via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/monicaeatoncar-
ambiguity arises. done.

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