Ant International's collaboration with Visa and Mastercard marks a strategic move to address the growing role of AI agents in consumer transactions, with projections suggesting they could manage between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global commerce by 2030, according to McKinsey.
Jiang-Ming Yang, chief innovation officer at Ant International, emphasized the importance of building trust in AI payments, particularly due to the potential for AI agents to produce unreliable outputs, or 'hallucinations.' The partnership aims to create common standards that ensure each AI agent is linked to a valid entity and monitored for behavior, facilitating a smoother user experience across different payment systems.
This is particularly relevant as digital wallets, which accounted for 56% of global e-commerce value in 2025, continue to integrate with traditional credit card systems. The need for interoperability is underscored by Pablo Fourez, chief digital officer at Mastercard, who highlighted that a consistent framework is essential for merchants and payment processors to identify trustworthy AI agents.
This initiative follows Ant International's separation from Ant Group, which operates Alipay, and reflects a broader trend of integrating AI into everyday payment processes, such as the recent feature allowing Alipay users to automate Starbucks orders.
As the landscape of digital payments evolves, this collaboration could significantly influence how consumers and businesses engage with AI in financial transactions