Meta and payment giants build open standards for AI agents

Meta is collaborating with Walmart, Stripe, and others on an open standard for agent-business communication, aiming to make agents a standard customer interface. Shopify has built agentic storefronts allowing merchants to sell across AI channels. Visa and MasterCard are developing systems with Cloudflare to recognize trusted agents, positioning themselves as the payment tollbooth regardless of which agent platform wins. OpenAI is integrating checkout directly into ChatGPT conversations, enabling purchases from Etsy and Shopify without leaving the app. Google is building agents and payments into Gemini while attempting to protect its search ad business. The speaker predicts a nine-stage evolution where a trusted middle layer for agent identity and payments becomes the standard, similar to Plaid's role in banking, with companies eventually competing for agent attention through optimized product pages and agent-specific advertising. The speaker predicts that a trusted middle layer for agent identity and payments will emerge as the standard, with payment and security companies like Visa, MasterCard, and Cloudflare winning that position.