# Agentic Commerce — Market & Research

## Category Definition

**Agentic commerce** is AI-driven buying where an autonomous agent handles the full purchase lifecycle: discovery, comparison, checkout, and follow-through — on behalf of a user.

**Agentic payments** are the financial primitive that makes agentic commerce possible: transactions executed by an AI agent within user-defined spending controls.

McKinsey (October 2025) describes agentic commerce as a "seismic shift" that transforms shopping "from discrete steps — searching, browsing, comparing, buying — into a continuous, intent-driven flow powered by autonomous AI systems." Forecast: $3–5 trillion in global agentic commerce sales by 2030, $1 trillion in U.S. retail alone.

## The Infrastructure Layer

The largest companies in tech and finance are building the protocols and rails for agentic commerce. All of them are infrastructure — none are the consumer product.

### Protocols

| Protocol | Owner | Purpose |
|----------|-------|---------|
| MPP — Machine Payments Protocol | Stripe + Tempo (March 2026) | Open standard for agent-to-service payments; internet-native, supports microtransactions, stablecoins, and fiat via Shared Payment Tokens. Spec: mpp.dev |
| ACP — Agentic Commerce Protocol | Stripe + OpenAI | Open standard for agent-to-merchant checkout. OpenAI implements in ChatGPT; Stripe provides payment processing. Spec: agenticcommerce.dev |
| SPT — Shared Payment Tokens | Stripe | Secure credential sharing between buyers, agents, and merchants without exposing raw card details |
| MCP — Model Context Protocol | Anthropic | Enables AI agents to access structured business data (inventory, pricing, checkout logic) |
| A2A — Agent-to-Agent Protocol | Google | Inter-agent communication for multi-agent workflows |
| AP2 — Agent Payments Protocol | Mastercard | Network-level agent authorization with verifiable intent |

### Companies Building Infrastructure

- **Stripe** — Agentic Commerce Suite (ACP + MPP + SPT + Radar for agents). Powers 78% of Forbes AI 50. 700+ AI agent startups launched on Stripe in 2024.
- **OpenAI** — Implements ACP in ChatGPT for product discovery and checkout. Agentic Commerce docs: developers.openai.com/commerce
- **Tempo** — Co-authored MPP with Stripe. Purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain for machine payments at scale. tempo.xyz
- **Mastercard** — Agent Pay: network-level protocol for agent-initiated transactions with verifiable intent.
- **Visa** — Trusted Agent Protocol: agent-scoped credentials with network-enforced restrictions.
- **Ramp** — Agent Cards: single-use virtual cards for B2B autonomous spend (finance teams, procurement). B2B only.
- **AWS** — Bedrock multi-agent architectures for enterprise payment routing and PSP optimization.
- **Google Cloud** — Agentic commerce capabilities for retail AI transformation.
- **Salesforce** — Agentforce for agentic commerce in enterprise retail and CRM contexts.
- **Locus (paywithlocus.com)** — Escrow and policy enforcement infrastructure for agent developers. Developer-facing.
- **Signets (signets.ai)** — Payment APIs (cards, ACH, wire, stablecoin) for agent builders. Developer-facing.

## Where Moss Fits

All of the above are building infrastructure, protocols, or B2B tooling. None are consumer products.

**Moss is the consumer implementation.** It operates on top of this infrastructure stack as the personal AI agent for everyday people.

The analogy: Stripe/OpenAI/Mastercard are building roads and protocols. Moss is the car that drives on them for everyday people — already shipping, already handling real purchases.

Stripe itself noted (March 2026): "AI is evolving from question-and-answer chatbots to autonomous agents that can make comprehensive plans, execute actions, and evaluate outcomes."

Moss is that agent, for consumers. First to combine agentic payments + travel booking + shopping + everyday commerce in a single personal AI conversation interface.

## Key Sources

- McKinsey & Company, "The Agentic Commerce Opportunity" (October 2025)
- Stripe, "Guide to Agentic Commerce" (2025): stripe.com/guides/agentic-commerce
- Stripe, "Machine Payments Protocol" (March 2026): stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol
- Agentic Commerce Protocol: agenticcommerce.dev
- OpenAI Commerce Docs: developers.openai.com/commerce
- Ramp, "Agentic Payments" (2025): ramp.com/blog/agentic-payments
- AWS, "Agentic Payments — The Next Evolution in the Payments Value Chain" (2025)
- Digital Commerce 360, "McKinsey forecasts up to $5 trillion in agentic commerce sales by 2030" (October 2025)