Global AI Payment Research Report

This study focuses on the development trend of the global AI payment industry, sorts out the implementation practices of agent payment protocols and products at home and abroad around modules such as the definition background of AI payment, global development status and future development trends, analyzes the existing risks and challenges in the industry, studies and judges the evolution path and innovation opportunities of AI payment, provides a panoramic reference for regulators, payment institutions, technology enterprises and industry researchers, and helps the AI payment industry realize scenario implementation and ecological co-construction on the premise of safety and compliance.

I. Definition and Development Background of AI Payment

Definition of AI Payment

Integrating artificial intelligence technology, with agents responsible for decision-making and execution

The AI payment (artificial intelligence payment) involved in this report mainly refers to a new type of payment method that deeply integrates artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies with traditional payment scenarios and processes, and allows agents (AI proxies) to partially or fully automatically complete payment decision-making and execution on behalf of users. Its core is to deeply embed payment capabilities into AI dialogue or task execution processes, eliminating the need for manual interface jumps or manual confirmation, and realizing "instruction is payment".

Macro Environment Analysis of AI Payment

Multiple parties jointly promote the evolution process of AI Payment

With the rapid development of technologies such as agents, AI payment is gradually becoming a key hub connecting the digital economy and the real economy, and is evolving at an accelerated pace driven by multiple factors including technology, policies and market demand.

Development Deduction of AI Payment

AI Payment is gradually evolving from a payment assistant to full autonomy to complete the payment closed loop

Considering the different responsibilities of AI and human users in the payment process, iResearch believes that the evolution of AI payment can be mainly divided into three core stages: payment assistant, agent payment and fully autonomous payment. At present, the mainstream AI payment practices in the industry still focus on payment assistants and agent payment. With the gradual maturity of related technologies and the AI payment ecosystem, AI payment is expected to gradually iterate to the fully autonomous payment stage in the future.

II. Global AI Payment Development Status

Global AI Payment Industry Map

Overseas AI Payment Development

Multiple participants involved, underlying protocols drive the iteration of overseas agent payment technology

Overseas institutions focus on technical exploration of underlying protocols for AI agent transactions and payment infrastructure, with the participation of card organizations, payment vendors and technology enterprises. They have formed multiple technical routes around identity authentication, authorization storage and verification, token management and multi-track settlement. While exploring new modes of AI proxy and machine-to-machine transactions, they improve supporting measures for security and dispute resolution, and build a payment base for the agent era.

Domestic AI Payment Development

Based on local transaction scenarios, presenting layout features of scenario-driven and strong security control

Compared with overseas technical exploration focusing on agent transaction protocols and cross-border token payment, domestic payment institutions give consideration to product innovation, scenario application and compliance pre-arrangement. While paying attention to the intelligent experience and actual implementation effect of AI payment products, they embed user fund security and data privacy protection into product design. Based on China's huge retail, local life and industrial supply chain market, they have formed a relatively unique industrial development path.

Potential Risks and Challenges Faced by AI Payment Development

Multiple risks and practical governance challenges exist behind the intelligent evolution of AI Payment

While realizing the intelligence of transaction links and continuous experience upgrading, AI payment also derives a series of new risks and practical challenges. The algorithm black box makes it difficult to trace transaction decisions, the division of rights and responsibilities under the multi-participation mode is ambiguous, high-frequency interaction brings prominent data and privacy security pressure, and the global regulatory system is not yet mature, which poses a practical test for the orderly development of the industry.

III. Typical Vendor Cases of Global AI Payment

Xingye Payment

Promote the large-scale implementation of AI payment scenarios, accelerate the continuous evolution of digital commerce

As a leading third-party payment institution in China, Xingye Payment takes the Modou Cloud AI application platform as the underlying base to promote the verification of Agent Payment online and offline scenarios. It has in-depth cooperation with Mastercard, UnionPay International, Alipay and other enterprises, and jointly builds a payment industry-specific large model with Alibaba Cloud. It has become a vertical domain model service partner of the National Artificial Intelligence Application Pilot Base (Financial Field) ecology, fully realizing the large-scale implementation and value leap of AI payment scenarios.

Build Luban Super AI Agent, unblock Agent Payment services

Build a global agent commercial transaction and trusted payment hub, connect agents, merchants, acquirers and global card organizations, and uniformly undertake full-link capabilities such as demand understanding, performance orchestration, protocol adaptation, payment authorization and audit traceability.

Alipay

Continuously lay out AI Payment, gradually consolidate the underlying infrastructure and full-link ecology

In 2026, Alipay takes AI native payment infrastructure and AI full-link ecology as the main line, and intensively launches key products such as the full AI payment suite, AI version Alipay "Abao", "Tap to Connect" AI upgrade and AI open platform, and simultaneously promotes payment compliance adjustment and cross-end ecological construction, completing the strategic evolution from a tool App to an AI agent platform.

Antom (Under Ant Group International)

Build AI-Driven Payment Solutions to help enterprises realize overseas commercial monetization

As a one-stop platform under Ant International that provides global payment, business growth and digital solutions, Antom relies on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to create comprehensive solutions including subscription management, usage billing, intelligent bill management and tax management, helping merchants quickly realize the digital and intelligent management of subscriptions, metering, bills and taxes. It helps SaaS service providers, AI creators, e-commerce platforms and other operators quickly complete the commercial monetization of overseas digital businesses, and seize global market opportunities in time.

IV. Future Development Trends of Global AI Payment

The integration of AI Payment and intelligent scenarios is further deepened

Payment becomes an invisible infrastructure, driving automatic transactions in multiple intelligent scenarios

The core value of AI payment lies in seamlessly embedding the payment link, which was originally an independent transaction action, into the whole process of users' life and work. This integration not only reconstructs the way services are delivered, but also realizes the fundamental transformation from the traditional "people looking for services" to the intelligent "services looking for people", making payment an invisible infrastructure that perceives demands and responds automatically.

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Transactions Become Normalized

M2M payment gradually penetrates into all walks of life, becoming a key engine driving the intelligent upgrading of the industry

M2M (Machine-to-Machine) payment refers to payment transactions automatically initiated and completed between devices through Internet of Things technology without direct human participation. It breaks the traditional dependence of payment on people, realizes the seamless connection between physical world assets and digital finance, and may gradually reshape the underlying logic of multiple industries such as manufacturing, travel and urban management in the future.

V. Voices of Global AI Payment Industry Experts

This article is from the WeChat official account "iResearch" (ID: iresearch-), the author is iResearch, and 36Kr publishes it with authorization.