Overview
- Ant International formally announced on Thursday that it has signed Visa and Mastercard to jointly develop an interoperable “Know Your Agent” framework to identify and track AI software that makes purchases for users.
- The framework will link each AI agent to a verified entity, score or evaluate agent behavior, and provide cross‑platform monitoring so an agent registered with one provider does not need to re‑register with others.
- The collaboration aligns separate systems the companies built over the past year, including Visa’s Intelligent Commerce Connect and Mastercard’s Agent Connect/Agent Pay, and extends reach through Ant’s Alipay+ network of more than 50 e‑wallet partners.
- Companies say the standard will embed safeguards such as tokenized permissions, spending limits and activity monitoring to reduce mistakes from AI hallucinations and to give merchants and consumers clearer authorization controls.
- The partners cited McKinsey’s $3 trillion to $5 trillion by‑2030 projection as the economic case for fast standardization, a change that could alter merchant integrations, regulator scrutiny and how consumers approve recurring AI‑initiated purchases.