Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The ongoing adoption of artificial intelligence for consumer commerce is moving payments companies to seek ways to make the technology work for everyday transactions. That effort often involves rules and standards for safe shopping. In the latest move, Klarna AB early Monday said it is joining the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard backed by Google Inc. to govern AI agents in working with commerce platforms.
Google’s UCP follows its launch in September of its Agent Payments Protocol, known as AP2. This digital rulebook, which governs such functions as user authentication, has won backing from dozens of retail, payments, and technology companies, including Adyen NV, American Express Co., Mastercard Inc., PayPal Inc., Stripe Inc., and Visa, besides Klarna.
Both AP2 and the UCP are aimed at governing the nascent but rapidly developing business of using bits of code, or agents, designed to shop and pay online on behalf of, and with instructions from, consumers.
Klarna, whose U.S. fourth-quarter volume soared 43% to help the Sweden-based processor hit $32.7 billion in total processing volume, is the latest payments player to see rapidly rising potential in agentic commerce so long as the world’s biggest payments players can instill and manage consumer trust through standards.
“As AI-driven shopping continues to evolve, it’s important that the underlying commerce infrastructure is built on openness, trust, and transparency,” David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna. “Supporting UCP is part of Klarna’s broader work with Google to help define responsible, interoperable standards that support the future of shopping.”
The potential for Klarna alone in this latest move in agentic commerce is considerable. The company, which is known for its buy now, pay later prowess, processes for 850,000 merchants, among them Uber, Saks, Macy’s, Nike, and Airbnb, and claims more than 114 million active users worldwide.
Globally, agentic commerce could account for between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in annual volume by 2030, according to estimates from McKinsey, with a nearly 30% annual growth rate through that year.
