The global technical body EMVCo has officially released a draft framework designed to standardize and secure the burgeoning field of agentic payments, signaling a major shift in how autonomous artificial intelligence systems will interact with global financial networks. This framework addresses the critical technical requirements for interoperability and scalability in card-based transactions where an AI agent—rather than a human—executes the payment. By introducing a structured approach to "Intent Services," the organization aims to provide a common coordination layer that allows consumers, merchants, and financial institutions to manage authorizations that evolve over time. This development comes as the payments industry prepares for a future where machine-to-machine commerce becomes a standard feature of the digital economy.
The Evolution Toward Autonomous Commerce
Agentic commerce represents the next frontier of the digital economy, moving beyond simple automated subscriptions toward sophisticated AI agents capable of making nuanced purchasing decisions on behalf of human users. Unlike traditional e-commerce, where a human interacts with a checkout interface to authorize a single transaction, agentic payments involve software entities that may need to make multiple purchases, manage budgets, or handle post-transaction logistics without immediate human intervention.
The release of the EMVCo draft framework is a proactive response to the complexities inherent in these autonomous transactions. The primary challenge identified by the organization is the management of "intent." In a typical transaction, intent is binary and immediate. However, in agentic scenarios—such as an AI managing a household’s grocery budget or an autonomous vehicle paying for charging and maintenance—intent must be managed over a lifecycle. This requires a "shared state" where the consumer’s original authorization can be registered, tracked, and updated as funds are spent or as the scope of the agent’s authority changes.
Defining the Intent Services Layer
At the heart of the new framework is the concept of "Intent Services." This proposed shared layer acts as a centralized or distributed coordination point for all participants in a payment transaction. The framework outlines how payment participants—including issuers, acquirers, and merchants—can register, retrieve, and update consumer-authorized intent.
Traditional cryptographic solutions, such as Verifiable Intent, are already used to prove that a consumer granted an agent the power to act. EMVCo’s framework does not seek to replace these methods but rather to complement them. While Verifiable Intent proves the "who" and the "what" at the moment of authorization, Intent Services provides the "how" and "how much" throughout the duration of the agent’s activity.
According to the draft, the framework establishes specific ecosystem roles and standardized data fields. These fields are designed to maintain "lifecycle and state information," which is essential for recurring purchases or cumulative budgets. For example, if a consumer authorizes an AI agent to spend up to $500 on travel-related expenses over a month, the Intent Services layer ensures that every merchant and bank involved in subsequent transactions can verify how much of that $500 remains available, ensuring the agent does not exceed its mandate.
Chronology of EMVCo’s Strategic Shift
The journey toward the Agentic Payments Framework is part of a multi-year trajectory by EMVCo to modernize card-based payments for a digital-first world.
- The Legacy Era (Pre-2010): EMVCo focused primarily on physical chip specifications (EMV Chip) to combat card-present fraud.
- The Digital Expansion (2014–2018): The organization introduced EMV Payment Tokenization and EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) to secure online transactions, replacing sensitive card numbers with secure tokens and adding layers of consumer authentication.
- The Remote Commerce Push (2019–2022): The development of Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) and the Click to Pay initiative aimed to streamline the checkout experience across different merchant platforms.
- The Agentic Pivot (2023–Present): Recognizing the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) and autonomous agents, EMVCo formed a dedicated Agentic Payments Task Force. This group was tasked with identifying the gaps in existing protocols that would prevent AI agents from operating seamlessly within the current financial infrastructure.
The publication of this draft framework in late 2025 (for a 2026 feedback cycle) marks the culmination of the Task Force’s initial research phase and the beginning of a global industry consultation.
Collaboration with Global Standards Bodies
EMVCo’s initiative is not happening in isolation. The organization has emphasized its ongoing collaboration with a wide array of industry partners to ensure that the payment framework aligns with broader technological standards. Key partners include:
- FIDO Alliance: Working on secure authentication methods that can identify both the human owner and the authorized agent.
- OpenID Foundation: Collaborating on identity layers to ensure that the "state" of a transaction is tied to a verified digital identity.
- OpenWallet Foundation: Ensuring that digital wallets can store and manage the "intent" credentials required by agents.
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium): Aligning payment standards with web architecture to allow AI agents to navigate merchant websites and APIs effectively.
Junya Tanaka, the EMVCo Executive Committee Chair, noted that card-based agentic payments require a "globally interoperable foundation" that all parties can trust. By involving these diverse stakeholders, EMVCo aims to prevent the fragmentation of the agentic commerce market into closed, proprietary loops.
Technical Integration and Future-Proofing
The framework is designed to be backwards-compatible while identifying necessary upgrades to existing EMV technologies. Industry analysts suggest that the implementation of Intent Services will lead to significant updates in several key areas:
EMV 3-D Secure (3DS)
Existing 3DS protocols often require a "challenge" (like a one-time password) sent to a consumer’s phone. For agentic payments, this creates friction that defeats the purpose of autonomy. Future iterations of 3DS may include "agent-friendly" authentication paths where the agent can provide cryptographic proof of authorization without triggering a manual human interrupt.
EMV Payment Tokenization
Tokens currently represent a card number for a specific merchant or device. In an agentic environment, tokens may need to be "intent-aware," meaning the token itself could carry metadata regarding the spending limits or the specific duration for which the AI agent is authorized to use it.
Know Your Agent (KYA) and Transaction Indicators
Perhaps the most significant future addition mentioned in the draft is "Know Your Agent" (KYA). Similar to Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, KYA would require systems to identify which specific AI agent is performing a transaction. This would involve "Agentic Transaction Indicators," which signal to the bank and merchant that the transaction is being conducted by an agent. This transparency is vital for risk scoring and fraud detection, as an agent’s spending patterns may differ significantly from those of a human user.
Industry Implications and Economic Impact
The move toward standardized agentic payments has profound implications for the global retail and financial sectors. For merchants, it promises a reduction in "cart abandonment" as AI agents can complete transactions instantly when certain conditions are met. For consumers, it offers a way to outsource the cognitive load of routine financial management.
However, the framework also addresses the looming "liability gap." If an AI agent makes an unauthorized or "hallucinated" purchase, who is responsible? By establishing a shared record of "intent," EMVCo provides a clear audit trail. If a transaction falls within the registered intent state, the consumer may be held liable; if the transaction exceeds the state or the Intent Service was bypassed, the liability may shift to the merchant or the agent provider.
Data from recent fintech market analyses suggest that autonomous commerce could account for as much as 15% of all digital transactions by 2030. Without a framework like the one proposed by EMVCo, the risk of fraud and the cost of resolving disputed autonomous transactions could stymie this growth.
Public Consultation and Next Steps
The release of the draft framework is the beginning of a formal comment period. EMVCo has invited stakeholders from across the payments, technology, and retail sectors to review the document and provide feedback. The organization is particularly interested in how the framework can be scaled to accommodate millions of concurrent agents without creating latency in the payment network.
The deadline for submitting feedback on the proposed framework is Wednesday, September 30, 2026. Following the review of these comments, EMVCo is expected to move toward a final specification, which will serve as the technical blueprint for the next generation of autonomous payment systems. This process ensures that when AI agents eventually become a staple of daily life, the financial infrastructure beneath them will be ready to handle the load with the same security and reliability that consumers have come to expect from traditional card payments.
