Payments In The Age Of AI Agents

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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller used a speech at Sibos 2026 to discuss how AI could improve cross-border payment screening and routing, while raising questions about autonomous shopping and payment agents. He said agentic commerce remains at an early stage and that delegated purchases will require stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller said AI could help improve cross-border payment screening and routing, while the growth of AI agents that shop and pay for consumers will require stronger safeguards. In a September 29 speech at Sibos 2026 in Miami, Waller described agentic commerce as an early-stage development that could reshape payments if adoption grows.

Waller said large language models could improve sanctions screening and anti-money-laundering systems by reducing false-positive alerts, allowing analysts to focus on more complex, higher-risk cases. He cited research showing that these models can significantly reduce false positives, but did not provide figures in the speech excerpt. He expects LLMs to augment faster traditional anomaly detection, rather than replace it.

He also described AI as a possible tool for defensive cybersecurity, including threat detection and finding software vulnerabilities. At the same time, he warned that AI may increase the volume and sophistication of cyberattacks. A successful attack on highly connected payment infrastructure, he said, could disrupt international commerce. Waller argued that payment operators face an uneven task: attackers may need to exploit one vulnerability, while defenders must protect a broad attack surface.

Waller outlined two forms of agentic commerce. In agent-assisted shopping, an AI helps search for products while the buyer chooses and pays. In agent-delegated shopping, the buyer gives an agent authority to make purchases within set limits, such as using a pre-funded virtual card to order groceries based on past purchases. He said consumer-to-business transactions are likely to be an early use case, with assisted shopping preceding more autonomous purchases.

AI Could Change Payment Decisions

Cross-border payments involve decisions about where to route a transaction, how to balance cost, speed and reliability, and when to convert currency or manage liquidity. Waller said AI agents could help solve these complex optimization problems when given suitable data and criteria. That is a potential efficiency gain, not a result he said has already been achieved across payment systems.

Autonomous purchasing also shifts some payment decisions from people to software. That could make routine shopping easier, but it raises practical questions about whether an agent has understood a buyer’s instructions, stayed within spending limits and chosen the intended item. Waller said delegated commerce carries greater risk of unintended purchases and depends on trust mechanisms and guardrails.

From Fraud Screening to Shopping

Waller placed the current developments in a longer history of AI use in payments. He said the industry has used machine learning to combat payment fraud and adopted large language models for tasks such as payment reconciliation. He described payment companies as now helping build infrastructure for AI agents to operate more broadly in the economy.

At an industry roundtable hosted at the Federal Reserve earlier in summer 2026, participants discussed agentic commerce. According to Waller, they broadly viewed it as being in an early phase, with potential to reshape commerce and payments if adoption scales. He also noted that consumers may use general-purpose agents from AI firms or agents built for specific merchants; personal AI assistants could become another route.

“I expect LLMs to augment, rather than replace, faster, more traditional anomaly detection methods.”

— Christopher J. Waller, Federal Reserve governor

Adoption and Safeguards Remain Open

Waller did not give a timetable for broad adoption of agentic commerce or quantify how much AI has reduced false-positive alerts in live payment systems. The speech excerpt also does not specify common technical or legal standards for setting agent spending limits, handling disputed purchases or assigning responsibility when an agent makes an unintended transaction.

It remains unclear how quickly consumers and merchants will adopt delegated purchases, and how payment systems will verify that an agent is acting within the buyer’s authorization. Waller’s remarks describe potential uses and risks; they do not establish that AI has already improved cross-border payment outcomes at scale.

Payment Firms Face Design Choices

Payment providers and technology firms will need to develop and test the infrastructure that lets agents access relevant information and complete transactions safely. For delegated commerce, Waller’s remarks point to further work on authorization, spending limits and ways to prevent or resolve unintended purchases.

On cross-border payments, the next questions are whether AI tools can improve routing, liquidity decisions and screening in practice, and how operators can use them without weakening cyber defenses. Waller did not announce a specific policy action or implementation deadline in the speech.

Key Questions

What did Christopher Waller say about AI and payments?

Waller said AI could help with illicit-finance screening, cybersecurity and cross-border payment routing. He also discussed AI agents that search for products or make purchases on a consumer’s behalf.

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is the use of AI agents in shopping. In an assisted model, the consumer makes the purchasing decision and pays. In a delegated model, the consumer authorizes an agent to shop and pay within specified limits.

Is AI-led shopping already widespread?

Waller described agentic commerce as being in an early phase. He said it could reshape commerce and payments if adoption scales, but gave no adoption figures or timetable.

How might AI affect cross-border payments?

AI could help screen transactions for sanctions and money-laundering risks and optimize routing, currency conversion and liquidity decisions. Waller described these as potential uses, not outcomes already established across the industry.

What risks did Waller identify?

He warned that AI could make cyberattacks more numerous or sophisticated and said delegated shopping raises the risk of unintended purchases. He said stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails are needed for more autonomous transactions.

Source: primary