AI shopping agents
AI shopping agents are AI assistants that search for products, compare offers and buy them for their users within set limits. Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Perplexity each run such an agent, and each one pays in a different way. Some agents buy inside their own interface, while others send the buyer to the merchant or fill in the checkout of the merchant website.
For payments, the card networks issue tokens to registered agents, and Stripe and PayPal pass those payments to merchants. Merchants decide which agents they let into their shops and how they recognize a registered agent. Amazon blocks outside agents on its store, while Google and OpenAI ask merchants to connect through open protocols.
Examples of AI shopping agents
Google tracks prices and buys through its agentic checkout in Search, AI Mode and Gemini, and its Universal Cart collects products from several retailers. OpenAI shows products in ChatGPT and sold them through Instant Checkout until March 2026, when most purchases moved back to the merchant.
Amazon runs Buy for Me for purchases on brand websites and Alexa for Shopping inside its own store. Perplexity sells products in its answers with PayPal and operates the Comet browser agent, which Amazon challenged in court.
How shopping agents pay
A shopping agent receives no card number from the buyer at any point. Card networks issue agent tokens through Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce, and Stripe passes payments to sellers as Shared Payment Tokens with limits on amount and time.
Which protocol an agent uses depends on the company that operates it. ChatGPT uses the Agentic Commerce Protocol, while Google uses the Universal Commerce Protocol together with the Agent Payments Protocol.
Verifying AI shopping agents
A merchant needs to know whether a visitor is a registered agent with a mandate or an unknown bot. Visa published the Trusted Agent Protocol for that check, and Mastercard requires every agent in Agent Pay to be registered and verified.
The check of who stands behind an agent and what it may do is called know your agent. The term borrows from know your customer, the identity check that banks run before they open an account.
Which AI shopping agents work in Germany?
The buying functions of Google, OpenAI and Amazon started in the United States. In Europe, Banco Santander and ING ran agent payments with Mastercard Agent Pay in March and June 2026, and payments by agents in the EU need strong customer authentication.
Upcoming payments events in Germany
What is an AI shopping agent?
An AI shopping agent is an AI assistant that finds, compares and buys products for a person within limits that person sets. It pays with a token from a card network or payment provider.
Can you buy products in ChatGPT?
ChatGPT shows products and links to merchants, and since March 2026 most purchases finish in the checkout of the merchant. Instant Checkout inside the chat started in September 2025 in the United States only.
Is it safe to let an AI agent shop for you?
The payment side uses tokens that are limited to one merchant, an amount and a time, and in Europe the buyer confirms payments with strong customer authentication. The agent can still choose the wrong product, so Google, Amazon and the ING pilot ask the buyer to approve before the agent pays.
AI shopping agents and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers AI shopping agents and the other building blocks of agentic payments in its Payments & Digital Money track. Finance Loop is a media partner of Capital & Code in Frankfurt, a conference whose program includes AI and agentic payments.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.